The Division of Insects’ holdings of worldwide Arthropoda (excluding Crustacea) rank fifth in overall size among North American collections and are of worldwide importance for many groups. The collection presently includes roughly 4.1 million pinned insects plus 8.3 million specimens or lots in alcohol or on microscope slides. In addition, there are over 17,000 partly-sorted “bulk samples” from traps or leaf-litter extractions. The collection receives heavy use by US and international research visitors and borrowers as well as extensive educational use.

Established in 1938, the Division of Invertebrates is in charge of all invertebrate groups except insects and other non-marine arthropods. The first curator of this Division was Fritz Haas, formerly of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Haas (1938 - 1969) and his successor Alan Solem (1957 - 1990) built massive mollusk collections, particularly strong in unionid bivalves and terrestrial snails, reflecting their respective research interests. Current curators Rüdiger Bieler (1990 -) and Janet Voight (1990 -) focus their research and collection-building on marine molluscan groups. The varied curatorial research interests, the collecting efforts of past and present collections managers (e.g., John Slapcinsky and Jochen Gerber), and acquisitions of private collections and "orphan collections"

The mammal collections at The Field Museum were founded in 1893, in the wake of the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and have grown into one of the world's premier resources for the study of mammalian evolution. Over its history the collection has had the names Field Columbian Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Natural History Museum, and again Field Museum of Natural History. Collections of Recent mammals number more than 236,000 specimens and 550 primary types. Each category ranks it among the largest mammal collections in the world. Although the collections are unique, encyclopedic, and worldwide in scope, those from the Philippines, Peru, Chile, Madagascar, Tanzania, Egypt, and Iran are among the world's very best.

Fungi Collections

The Division of Birds houses the third largest scientific bird collection in the United States. The main collection contains over 480,000 specimens, including 600 holotypes, 70,000 skeletons, and 7,000 fluid specimens. In addition, the division houses 21,000 egg sets and 200 nests. The scope of the collection is world-wide; all bird families but one are represented, as are 90% of the world's genera and species. Included among its many historically and scientifically valuable individual collections are the H. B. Conover Game Bird Collection, Good's and Van Someren's African collections, C. B. Cory's West Indian collection, the Bishop Collection of North American birds, a large portion of W. Koelz's material from India and the Middle East, and many separate collections from South America, Africa (Hoogstraal from Egypt) and the Philippines (Rabor).

The collection serves as a major research resource for the national and international scientific communities and contains unique material of special historical and ecological significance. The collection database is accessible online on this website and through HerpNET. During the 1970’s, it was recognized as one of the five largest and most representative collections of amphibians and reptiles in the United States (Wake et al. 1975). Currently it ranks among the top six herpetological collections in the United States and one of the twenty largest in the World. Collection use has been growing steadily. Loan requests, visits by researchers, and information requests are at high levels. Zoologists, paleontologists, wildlife disease researchers and other disciplines utilize the collections. Regular collection users include professional scientists, agency personnel and students (undergraduate and graduate).

Strong representation of neotropical taxa is credited to the many floristic projects and collection-oriented research programs, an integral part of the department since its inception. Especially rich are holdings in the neotropical families Rubiaceae, Asteraceae, Palmae, Fabaceae, Piperaceae and Solanaceae, primarily due to the work of present or former staff botanists. The Central American material is overall one of the world's finest single collections with special strengths in Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica. The South American collections are important with special strengths in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. A good representation in North American taxa is found, especially for Missouri and Illinois, and unmarked types are commonly discovered in these holdings.

The bryophyte collection at The Field Museum is a major resource for bryophyte systematics, particularly for Central and South American, temperate Australasian, North American and European taxa. The collection consists of more than 200,000 specimens, including 127,614 moss and 51,508 hepatic specimens with a total of 2,284 types.

The mycology collection at The Field Museum is a major resource for studies in evolution, systematics, and biodiversity of fungi and lichens and conservation of their habitats. It consists of currently over 200,000 specimens with world-wide coverage and broad taxonomic representation. It is rich in type collections, especially of neotropical taxa and historical types from North America, Europe, and Asia.

Established in 1894, The Field Museum fish collection now contains more than 1,700,000 specimens, 130,000 lots, 10,000 species, 4,500 tissuesamples, 3,500 skeletons, 1,400 nominal types, and 450 families. Specimens range from the lobe-finned Coelacanth and lungfishes, to a diversity of freshwater catfishes and cichlids, to charismatic reef fishes such as the amazing Slingjaw Wrasse and venomous Red Lionfish.