Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the World’s Fair in Chicago at the IEEE PES T&D Conference & Expo opening reception Monday evening, April 21, 2008, at 6 p.m.Chicago’s world-renowned Museum of Science and Industry will be the place to meet and greet colleagues.
The museum’s origins are tied to two great World's Fairs and to the civic spirit and imagination of Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald. Rosenwald, then chairman of Sears Roebuck & Company, was inspired by a 1911 visit with his son to the DeutchesMuseum in Munich. He returned to Chicago determined to create America's first center for "industrial enlightenment," a vehicle for public science education. With the help of other Midwest business leaders, Rosenwald restored and converted the Palace of Fine Arts, the last remaining major structure from the 1893 World's Fair, into a new type of American museum - where visitors could interact with the exhibits, not just view displays and artifacts. In 1933, the Museum of Science and Industry opened to the public, at the same time as the Century of Progress Exposition.
