The Adler Planetarium, founded in 1930 by Chicago businessman Max Adler, is dedicated to the study of astronomy and astrophysics. Adler was a vice president of Sears Roebuck & Co., a former concert violinist, and the brother-in-law of Julius Rosenwald, who was also part-owner of Sears, as well as the founder of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Originally conceived of as forming a part of the Museum of Science and Industry by Mr. Rosenwald, The Adler would have been housed within a freshly-renovated building leftover from the Columbian Exposition of 1893, known as the Palace of Fine Arts. However, numerous delays in renovation caused Adler to look elsewhere for a location.
Since the Northerly Island had just been completed, the 1st of 5 intended but never executed recreational islands, it was ultimately located there instead. The Adler forms the first part of Chicago’s Museum Campus, located along the shore of Lake Michigan on Northerly Island, which also includes the Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum, and was the very first planetarium to be located in the Western Hemisphere. It is now home to three theaters, extensive space exhibitions, and a large collection of antique scientific instruments.
The Adler’s theaters include:
- The Grainger Sky Theater – the largest domed theater, at 69 feet, which offers audiences the most immersive, technologically enhanced experience ever developed for a planetarium;
- The Definiti Theater – the Adler’s 2nd domed theater, which features an all-digital projection system;
- The Samuel C. Johnson Family Star Theater – featuring a dazzling, high-definition 3D experience.
In addition, The Adler is also home to the Doane Observatory, one of the only public research observatories, as well as the 15-foot Atwood Celestial Sphere (below), a planetarium unlike any other, dating from 1913, where visitors can walk inside to experience the night sky while the entire apparatus rotated around them!
- Visited: Most recently, May 2013
- National Historic Landmark: 1987
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