Adler Planetarium

For Chicagoans who can pick out the Big Dipper and not much else in the night sky, the Adler Planetarium can open up a whole new universe. In addition to shows and exhibits at its theaters, galleries, and observatory, the Adler provides astronomy education for students, adults, and families through a variety of course offerings, lectures, and other special events. Its museum, one of the largest of its kind in the world, features some 2,000 historic astronomy, navigation, and mathematics instruments. Opened in 1930, the Adler was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere. Its namesake and founding benefactor, Max Adler, was a Sears, Roebuck officer and early stockholder.

History

Establishment

In 1913, Oskar von Miller of the Deutsches Museum commissioned the Carl Zeiss Works to design a mechanism that projects an image of celestial bodies onto a dome. This was achieved by Walther Bauersfeld and the invention became known as a planetarium when it debuted in 1923. Its popularity quickly spread, and by 1929, there were fifteen in Germany, two in Italy, one in Russia, and one in Austria.[8] Max Adler, a former executive with Sears, Roebuck & Co. in Chicago, Illinois, had recently retired to focus on philanthropic endeavors, primarily on behalf of the local musical and Jewish communities. However, after listening to a friend describe a Munich planetarium, Adler decided that a planetarium would fit in well within the emerging Museum Campus in Chicago. Adler visited the Munich planetarium with his cousin, architect Ernest Grunsfeld, Jr., whom Adler would commission to design the Chicago structure.[5] He also learned about a sale of astronomical instruments and antiques by W. M. Mensing in Amsterdam, which he purchased the following year. The Mensing Collection became the focus of the Astronomical Museum.[9] Adler offered $500,000 in 1928 for the construction of the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere.

The planetarium was originally considered for part of the Museum of Science and Industry, an endeavor led by Adler's brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald. Rosenwald was determined to convert the former Palace of Fine Arts of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition into a museum, but was struggling to manage the many required renovations. These delays caused Adler to look elsewhere for a location.[10] The South Park Commissioners, the precursor to the Chicago Park District, had just completed Northerly Island, the first of five intended (but otherwise never executed) recreational islands that were to be consistent with Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. The Adler Planetarium and Astronomical Museum opened on Adler's birthday, May 12, 1930. The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Grunsfield a gold medal for his design.[5] The planetarium hosted the 44th meeting of the American Astronomical Society later that year.

Located in: Museum Campus
Address: 1300 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL 60605, United States
Tickets: $8–19 · adlerplanetarium.org
Founder: Max Adler
Founded: 1930
Architect: Ernest Grunsfeld,Jr.