American Historical Ephemera & Photography

5 7/8 x 8 in. invitation (discoloration to margins, few rips to edges, horizontal center crease). Printed text reads, "The Board of Trustees of the Field Columbian Museum requests the pleasure of your presence at the formal opening of the Museum on Saturday afternoon, June the second, eighteen hundred and ninety four, at half after two o'clock. Jackson Park, Chicago."

Chicago business magnate Marshall Field donated one million dollars for the purpose of starting the Columbian Museum of Chicago - soon renamed the Field Columbian Museum. His and others' donations made possible the purchase of the museum's first collections, many objects of which were purchased from exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition that had taken place the previous year.