Shedd Aquarium
public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Shedd Aquarium (formally the John G. Shedd Aquarium) is a public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is one of the oldest continually operating non-governmental aquariums in the U.S.
Opened on May 30, 1930, the 5 million US gal (19,000,000 L; 4,200,000 imp gal) aquarium holds about 32,000 animals. It is the fourth largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere (after L'Oceanogràfic, the Georgia Aquarium and The Seas at Epcot) and the 11th-largest aquarium in the world.
The Shedd Aquarium is a highly ranked world aquarium and at one time was the largest indoor facility in the world. It is the first inland aquarium with a permanent saltwater fish collection. The aquarium is located along Lake Michigan in the city's Museum Campus, which also includes other highly ranked institutions such as Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum of Natural History.
In 2015, the Shedd Aquarium had 2.02 million visitors. It was the most visited aquarium in the Western Hemisphere in 2005, and in 2007, became the most visited cultural institution in Chicago. The aquarium contains 1,500 species, including fish, marine mammals, birds, snakes, amphibians, and insects. The aquarium received awards for "best exhibit" from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) for Seahorse Symphony in 1999, Amazon Rising in 2001, and Wild Reef in 2004.
The public source identifies “Shedd Aquarium” as public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Shedd, Aquarium and public.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2166515. VIAF identifies the subject as 147879777. The Library of Congress control number is n90698083. Authority coordinates are 41.868, -87.614. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2015, 2005 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shedd Aquarium” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.