The Shedd Aquarium
The history of Shedd Aquarium is part vision and part ingenuity. Our founder, John G. Shedd, retired president of Marshall Field & Company, was a marketing genius and just as bold and ambitious as his city. He was determined to transform.
By the early 1920's, every truly cosmopolitan city here and abroad had a fine aquarium. While Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo did have an impressive freshwater fish collection, what Shedd had in mind was a stand-alone aquarium. In the spirit of "build it, and they will come," he made a $2 million gift to get things going. He would add another $1 million to make sure his aquarium would be just as grand as the two museums already in Grant Park: the Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum