Flat Stanley had a most excellent visit to the city of Chicago with his friend Tom. Flat Stanley got to ride in a special place – a pocket all to himself inside Tom’s vest.
Chicago is a big city in the state of Illinois.
Chicago is next to Lake Michigan, a lake that’s about 20 times bigger than the Puget Sound in Washington. Flat Stanley found a lot of tall, tall buildings in Chicago.
It was autumn when Flat Stanley visited. He was amazed to see big trees with beautiful red leaves close to the tall, tall buildings.
How buildings are designed is called architecture. Making buildings tall is one kind of architecture. Flat Stanley saw other kinds of architecture in other buildings – like fancy columns, arches, and glass ceilings. Flat Stanley found all three in this building.
Flat Stanley found different architecture in this building. This is a huge dome way up high inside a library. Flat Stanley found out that the dome is made of hundreds and hundreds of little bitty windows.
In Chicago, Flat Stanley spent several days in a very, very large art museum, called the Art Institute of Chicago. Flat Stanley discovered that they spell “institute” in a funny way. He learned that it’s the old-fashioned way of using a V instead of U. Isn’t that CONFVSING?
At the Art Institute, Flat Stanley learned that it takes a lot of people to make it run. Some people give a lot of their own money to help pay all of the bills. These people are called benefactors. Flat Stanley stopped to read some of the names of the generous benefactors up on a big wall.
Flat Stanley found all kinds of different art made in lots of different ways. He saw this colorful repetitive pattern, painted on hundreds of tiles.
He saw this painted glass window. Look at how Flat Stanley played with one of the children the artist included in the window!
Flat Stanley found this picture of a camel made of hundreds and hundreds of little bits of cut stones and tile. This kind of picture is called a mosaic.
Some art called sculpture is carved out of a large white rock called marble. Flat Stanley thought this marble lady was staring at him!
Of course, a lot of art is made with paint on surfaces, like this famous painting that took years to complete on canvas. Flat Stanley was just one of dozens of people who were fascinated to look closely at this scene from a park in Paris, France.
Flat Stanley was surprised to learn that even architecture is a kind of art. This is one of the buildings that make up the Art Institute. Flat Stanley figured out that means there is art inside of art!
Of all the things Flat Stanley saw in Chicago and in the museum, these two paintings put up side by side were his favorite. They were painted by the same artist in the same village. Flat Stanley spent several minutes finding all the things that are the same and all the things that are different. What can you find?
When it was time for Flat Stanley to leave the museum and Chicago, he looked up outside the museum doors and saw this lion. Ordinarily, the lion sits like a pretend guard, protecting all the treasures inside the Art Institute. But this day, the Chicago Cubs baseball team won the World Series. The lion put on one of their hats. Flat Stanley decided that the lion was their biggest fan!
