Oriental Instutute Museum Audio Tours

The Oriental Institute has released a set of audio tours of the collections on display in the Museum.



You can download them ahead of time and play them on your own iPod as you walk through the Museum, or you can check out iPods at the Suq at no charge to members, and for a fee of $5.00 for non-members.

The first group of tours includes:

• Highlights of the Collection
• The Ancient Middle East in the Time of Tutankhamun
• A Kid's Tour of Ancient Egypt
• The Bible and the Ancient Middle East (coming soon)

Other tours are under development.

• Audio Tour Guide, in Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)

The audio tour program is supported by a generous gift from Joyce and Roger Isaacs.

The introduction to Highlights of the Collection is spoken by OI Director Gil Stein. The remainder of Highlights is spoken by OI Museum Directory Geoff Emberling.

News: "Easily Overlooked Ornamentation"

WTTW's Chicago Tonight has a feature called Hidden Chicago.

On June 10, 2009 they broadcast a feature on architectural ornamentation Easily Overlooked Ornamentation. 5:10 into that broadcast is a segment on James Henry Breasted and the typmanum over the Oriental Institute doorway.


They also have a slideshow, and an extended "director's cut" of the show.

For more on the OI tympanum, see The Tympanum within the Arch on the Doorway to the Oriental Institute, and Some Decorative Motifs of the Oriental Institute Building.

See the chronicle of news about the Oriental Institute.