museum hopping

Benisse

Benisse

Perelandrian
Staff member
Royal Guard
One of my favorite pastimes is museum hopping. This thread is to swap notes on museums/exhibits you've visited recently.

Okay I'll go first. My daughter and I saw a fun (if such a word can be applied to such a ruthless warrior) Genghis Khan exhibit in Irving, Texas last month. It covered not only that military leader's life but also chronicled his dynasty through his grandson Kublai Khan, who started a dynasty in China and received Marco Polo into his court. Our favorite part though was the Mongolian folk dancers who danced a different program on the hour. So we stayed in the exhibit just so we could catch three of their performances. I picked up a wool chess board with Mongol warrior chessmen (rooks=warcarts, bishops=camels and pawns=sheep) for my husband for our anniversary in the exhibition giftshop.
 
Wow, that sounds so cool, and the chess board and pieces sound awesome.

I know you will remember the NARNIA exhibit here at the HMNS. It had costumes and props from the films, including that very cool lamp post at the beginning and the faux snow when you first walked in ... Really enjoyable.

At the Field Museum in Chicago my husband and I saw the "Real Pirates of the Caribbean" exhibit, which had some actual recovered pirate treasure (for all the talk about treasure ships, only one real pirate shipwreck has been found -- they had some of the coins and things recovered at the exhibit). There were re-creations of what serving on a pirate ship was like with mannequins in costume and cabins and decks of the ship set up, plus lots of information on what it meant to be a pirate. Of course it was a dangerous business, but it was also one where you could be any race and still be on equal footing -- former slaves and Europeans alike could go far as pirates; if they didn't get killed.

There was even a section on a lady pirate captain; I can't remember her name. She had her own ship and a lot of guys served under her. The main story was about a slave ship that was overhauled and captured by pirates, who turned the slave ship into a pirate ship, and some of the slaves turned pirate, too. It was better than being a slave, I guess.

And there was a room set up to show how they clean up artifacts that have become encrusted with coral and sand from being in the sea for centuries, without damaging the artifacts -- they suspend them in great tubs of water and send a low-level electric charge through the water for 3 or 5 years, and eventually the encrustations and sediment begin to fall away ... it was fascinating.
 
I can't recall -- but I imagine the exhibit is still touring; I will try to look it up when I get a minute. It was quite a cool exhibit!

We also had, at the Museum of Natural Science, a mineral exhibit? I can't remember the name of it, but it was actually all gems, like diamonds and emeralds and things ... that was quite lovely.
 
My daughter and I just visited the Museum of Natural Science in Houston when on vacation at the beginning of this month and there was a special exhibit that traced the history of Texas from native American roots to modern times with lots of artifacts and historical recreations and even cool sound effects. It was a great prequel to the next stop on our trip, the Alamo! My favorite item on display though was an original Juneteenth proclamation...

While in San Antonio, in addition to remembering the Alamo, we visited the Institute of Texan Cultures (affiliated with the Smithsonian) which was a fascinating quilt of all the various ethnic groups that have made Texas their home. I wish I could have had a couple more hours to go through that amazing museum. There was even a film clip mentioning the kidnapping of Japanese from South America and their subsequent internment in Crystal City during WWII. There is a family in my church who came to the United States through those arrests, but that is the first documentation I had seen of that chapter of history. It was fascinating to go through the exhibits, many of which were interactive and focused on personal histories. Definitely worth visiting again!
 
The most recent museum trips I took were to the Philadelphia Art Museum, and at that point they were having a Renoir exhibit. I also recently went to Winterthur, and the Folgers Shakespeare Library. I've been very busy with school for the past years, so I haven't been able to go to all of the museums I would like to.
 
Narnia_bookworm said:
The most recent museum trips I took were to the Philadelphia Art Museum, and at that point they were having a Renoir exhibit. I also recently went to Winterthur, and the Folgers Shakespeare Library. I've been very busy with school for the past years, so I haven't been able to go to all of the museums I would like to.
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What did you enjoy about the Folger Shakespeare Library?
 
Oooo! the Folger Library is so cool. When I went there years ago I got an amazing illustrated version of Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb in its gift shop... And I got to see a luminous A Winter's Tale performed in the theater there :p

Today my daughter was given a chance to be part of a music video at the Fender Museum of Music and the Arts (of Fender guitar fame), and we got to go in to the museum while we were there. My daughter liked the hands-on area where she could jam on a Fender bass guitar till she started getting blisters on her fingers. I especially enjoyed the special Johnny Cash exhibit featuring his memorabilia, platinum records, costumes, footage and art. I'm not really in to country music, but my son really likes the Man in Black because he is a bass (as opposed to a tenor).
 
Very cool, Benisse!

Bookworm, I like your siggie. :) Love Luna

Years ago one of the glitzy Vegas hotels had a temporary exhibit from the Guggenhiem on Faberge, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous display of the famed eggs and a lot of other wonderful jewelry and jeweled things. :)
 
Years ago one of the glitzy Vegas hotels had a temporary exhibit from the Guggenhiem on Faberge, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous display of the famed eggs and a lot of other wonderful jewelry and jeweled things.
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Oh those eggs are so so pretty. I'd love to see one in real life one day.

I heard about the Pirate Museum, it sounds pretty cool, even more so by your description.

A few years ago I went to Kansas City, and they have quite a few museums there. The WWI museum was very interesting but kind of sad. It had tons of old posters and postcards and outfits which were cool. There was this part where you could see what it looked like to be in a trench... That was kind of sad. And when you walk in, you cross a glass bridge over a bunch of red poppies (I read somewhere that there were 9000, one for every 1000 casualties in the war.) They are very pretty but it does leave an impression. I saw this huge tower there, and you could ride an elevator to the top, but I was terrified of the height of it back then. Has anyone else been there?

In a less serious museum somewhere else in the city there was an Art Museum... I don't remember the name, but it was beautiful. If I ever go back to Kansas City I will go to that museum again. They kind of separated the museum into modern art and everything else. The modern art held no interest for me, but the other part of the museum was grand! Each civilization had it's own room. The things that stood out most to me was an old suit of armor and a beautiful lion statue created by a man who had never seen a lion.

I've not been to any museums since then lol, but those stand out most to me of the ones I have been to :p.
 
ndfan1993
that bridge over all those poppies sounds so moving...!
and I love hanging out in art museums too -- enjoying all kinds of periods and styles. Thanks for sharing.

hi Inky
in 1992 I sang with an international choir on Red Square for Easter and got to see a fabulous exhibit in Moscow of the Faberge eggs/craftsmanship plus other artifacts of Imperial Russia. It was unbelievable! The eggs were especially beautiful and full of surprises.
 
Wow, the WW I museum does sound very cool, and sad. And I love an art museum, for a fact. Once dragged my husband through a Degas exhibit in New Orleans; Degas had lived there for a time, and the exhibit -- while it had some dancers and stuff he is known for -- focused on other works like (of course!) "A Cotton Office in New Orleans" and some early sketches, etc. It was fascinating.

Benisse, that's so cool you saw Faberge in Russia! I made several trips to the former USSR, but always working, and only ever saw the outside of cool places like Red Square and the Hermitage ... ** sigh **

At the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago there is a German U-boat, the only one captured during WW II which has been made into an exhibit -- you walk through and there are sounds and light effects that reproduce how it must have been during the chase and finally the sinking (as it were?) of the sub -- they didn't sink it of course, but disabled it. It was quite well done and gave you a little taste of what it must have been like to serve on such a vessel and how terrifying it must have been when it was attacked, etc.
 
inkspot said:
Benisse, that's so cool you saw Faberge in Russia! I made several trips to the former USSR, but always working, and only ever saw the outside of cool places like Red Square and the Hermitage ... ** sigh **
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Has anyone here ever been inside the Hermitage? It's on my bucket list. I would love to hear what not to miss while visiting there.

One unforgettable experience I had years ago was the tour through Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, especially the Children's Memorial. The memory has haunted me for years... probably the most powerful museum experience I have ever had.
 
Henri Nouwen went inside the Hermitage and wrote a book about his encounter with "The Return of the Prodigal Son." If I ever got there, I would definitely spend an hour with that painting ...

I hope you get to go GSM!
 
inkspot said:
Henri Nouwen went inside the Hermitage and wrote a book about his encounter with "The Return of the Prodigal Son." If I ever got there, I would definitely spend an hour with that painting ...
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Excellent suggestion, Inky, I haven't read the book but it's now on my must read list. Thanks!
 
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