Miniatures in Chicago

I've always found miniatures and dioramas to be some of the most interesting things included in museum collections. By far the best collection I've seen are the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. A lot of visitors miss them because they're tucked away in the lowest level. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you might catch a dying light bulb and the flickering turns the room into a horrorshow/thunderstorm.

Above: Art Deco Living Room
Below: English Library of the Queen Anne

We visited the Chicago Field Museum recently for the first time and found these dioramas w/ handmade figures and campy painted backdrops:

Above: Plains Indians hunting buffalo.

Below: A step in the Egyptian mummifying/burial ritual.

Lastly, there were several minis at the Museum of Science and Industry. There was an entire scale model of the cities of Chicago and Seattle connected by railroad, as well as Colleen Moore's fairy castle, circus exhibit, and parade scene.

Above: Bedroom in the castle with what looked like an albino squirrel rug.

Below: A clockwork sideshow.