Space for Inspiration in South Loop
Central Chicago
Located on Northerly Island just south of the Loop but always reaching beyond the sky, Adler Planetarium has been inspiring discovery for over 90 years.
In 1952, the Adler opened the Optical Shop, where visitors could work with Adler staff to create optical elements for their own telescopes. As the Space Race inspired a growing interest in space and astronomy, the optical shop became a popular hands-on exhibit for visitors to experience or observe the process of making scientific instruments.
One participant in the optical shop and the Adler's astronomy club was George R. Carruthers, a teenager attending Englewood High School. Carruthers found an interest in astronomy through reading science fiction as a child, but it was only when he moved from rural Ohio to Chicago at age 12 that he was able to truly foster his interest. He took the "L" from his home on the South Side to the Adler, where he could talk to astronomers, see shows, and use the optical shop to grind and polish mirrors for his own small telescope. Carruthers went on to become an inventor, physicist, engineer, and space scientist. He designed a compact telescopic device used on Apollo 16 in 1972 to take ultraviolet images in space. Along with his many scientific achievements, Carruthers created and supported educational programs to inspire scientific interest for future generations.
Beyond training future scientists, the Adler Planetarium provides space for the community to engage with space and find inspiration for an array of passions and pursuits.
In 1977, Chicago-raised artist Frederick J. Brown collaborated with Adler to create a large painting depicting our galaxy. Brown's interest in astronomy and space was evident in previous works that featured his abstract expressionism style. Planetarium staff shared with Brown what was currently known about our galaxy through scientific research, and discussed the limitations of our knowledge because we cannot view it from the outside. Brown's painting, Milky Way, uses science, imagination, and artistic expression to represent our galaxy and the pursuit to understand it. The painting was donated to the Adler in 2018.
