May 10: The First Planetarium

Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and the oldest existing one today, was dedicated on this date in 1930. It was founded and funded by Max Adler, a vice-president of the Sears Roebuck Co., who had retired two years earlier to become a philanthropist. Adler’s wife, Sophie, was the sister of Julius Rosenwald, who headed Sears and was a major funder of the NAACP and other anti-racist organizations and projects; before marrying her and taking a position in the company, Adler had been a concert violinist.

“In our reflections, we dwell too little upon the concept that the world and all human endeavor within it are governed by established order and too infrequently upon the truth that under the heavens everything is interrelated.” —Max Adler