I hope this is appropriate: over on H-Museum folks occasionally post
formal reviews of exhibits. My family just spent a few days down in
Philadelphia and we hit a few of the museums, and I thought I'd come
out of my lurking to share my impressions of 'em.

First off, I had no clue there were so many. And there's a *ton* of
public art around also. I never made it to the Art Museum, which has
an armor gallery that I'd like to see.

The first museum we hit was the Academy of Natural Sciences. I
thought it was a *great* museum: great exhibits (dinosaurs,
butterflies, Outside In) and a good number of interpreters/educators
around. We learned stuff from at least 5 different interpreters. A
couple of them really stand out in my mind: pleasant, knowledgeable,
approachable, and willing to answer the same old questions without
wincing. Kudos to ANS for their interpreters.

Granted, there's a difference in size and the fact that we did the
ANS on Friday and the Franklin Institute on Saturday, but I really
enjoyed my time at ANS more than I did at the FI. Crowds and  fewer
interpreters/educators were definitely a major factor. We interacted
with only 2 interpreters/educators at the FI: one on the train, and
one at the planetarium. I am also a planetarium fan and was very
happy that they also did live "The Sky Tonight" shows in addition to
the other packaged shows. I was also surprised to see a Digistar
projector in the Fels Planetarium: they used to have a Zeiss. When
did they make that change? I thought the best designed exhibit was
the shimmer wall in the new Air Show section: a wall of dangly metal
disks that are moved by air from a fan, drums, or an air cannon.
Beautifully simple.

I have an almost 5-year-old and an 8-year-old so we went off to the
Please Touch Museum also. I have to say that I was curious to see the
grocery store exhibit after hearing about it here on the list. What a
*brilliant* place! Both kids enjoyed it, and I loved putting on a
wolf suit in the Sendak section and riding in Max's boat. I also
liked that the folks who designed and built the SEPTA bus were
credited on the bus. The treehouse in the construction section is
again a *brilliant* design where kids can put up a board and band in
a couple of large plastic nails to hold it up. It is really wonderful
stuff. The store is certainly the busiest section. But I think the
Alice in Wonderland section is my absolute favorite. It's really a
wonderful place. I think anyone designing for kids should see it.

We went to Franklin Court and I was thrilled to talk to the ranger in
the Printing Office -- another great interpreter/educator -- and give
the bindery a once-over. We went through the Franklin Underground
Museum and I am forced to ask, what were they thinking when they
designed it? The mirror passageway with the neon lights and the big
bank of phones for the dial-a-quote seemed a waste of space to me.
Especially when the glass cases around the edge of the room seemed
crowded/busy. It seemed a very strange design. If anyone can clue me
in to the history of the creation of the museum, I'd appreciate it.

Also, is there something similar to the ASTC Passport program for
historical museums? And is there a friend of the National Parks
program?

---Amy West (Museum neophyte)

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