Museums

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=#9933ff]Bored, watching a video of Where Were You by Alan Jackson which made me think of the Museum of New York History in Albany New York with the 9/11 exhibit. So in order to get off that kick and start a new thread I decided to talk about museums. This can be local museums or museums you've visited. But yeah museums, seldom discussed but often visited.

I guess as you all may or may not be able to guess the first museum I'm going to talk about is the [URL="http://www.strongmuseum.org/"]Strong National Museum of Play[/URL] because it's the only museum in the states dedicated to the study of play and it's a short drive from my house so I go there a lot (The season pass doesn't hurt either) my daughter and I love this place. It was originally just the Strong Museum and housed a toy museum (as mentioned in my Barbie vs Bratz thread) One History Place which is set up to be a turn of the last century kitchen (complete with a cast iron wood burning stove, pump sink and old style crank phone) an attic (with a lot of dress up clothes), a turn of the last century palour and a train complete with a ticket booth (And some model trains)- which takes some explaining, a Seaseme Street Exhibit and in the early 90's a replica Wegmans (local grocery store chain) Also upstairs with the toy museum was a time lab and an exhibit called When Barbie Dated GI Joe Growing up in the Cold War.

In 2006 it got a complete overhaul and a lot of new exhibits including the Feild of Play which has a dual DDR game that you can play for free, Story Book Land/ Fairy Tale Land which has everything from sluething to HArry Potter to Cinderella's pumpkin and the Giant's house from Jack and the Beanstalk (and a lot of history and other stuff in between) and a butterfly garden called Dancing Wings. In December of this year they're getting a larger salt water fish tank.

The Strong National Museum of Play is one of my favorite places here in Rochester especially in the colder months when it's nearly impossible to find a parking spot past 12 noon that's not in East Jesus. The place opens at either 10 or 11AM and is usually open until 5PM except for Fridays when it's open until 8PM. I can definately stay in there all day with me daughter- and not only to perfect my DDR play- which is still bad, but I am getting more coordinated.

I guess the most interesting part of the museum is definately the different collections of toys and where they're housed. She'Ra Princess of power is not only on the second level in the toy museum- she's also in the feild of play as a super hero. One of the most recent additions other than the Bratz dolls have been Beanie Babies, Elmo and Sailor Moon dolls. Yes, Sailor Moon, right in there with My Little Pony and Barbie and the Rockers. Sadly no Jem and the Holograms.

Oh man, now I've gone on like an advert for this place. But I do highly recommend it to anyone wishing to come for a visit. Eh I guess in my next post I won't be as exhuberant, but I will talk about more museums, including living history ones. So, anyone else?[/color]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

My fiancee had never been out of the state until our past anniversary (Sept. 6th), so I decided to take her out to Pittsburgh and check out the carneige museums of art and natural history. I strongly recommend anyone from near there ( The 2 1/2 drive was WELL worth it) check it out.

The exhibits were fantastic, I'm more into the natural history side than then art and her vice versa. So we took two days out to see EVERYTHING, I can't remember the specs but there's something like 5000 exhibits (sort've dissapointed that they classify EVERY painting as an exhibit and not just based on the artist though)

They have everything from Dinosaur fossils (though I had to play santa killer and explain that they weren't ACTUAL fossils but molds.) They have an excellent staff and after some begging on my part, we were allowed back in the room where they actually make the molds and got to examine some actual dinos. Dream come true for me.

The art side, though not my thing persoanlly, was impressive nonetheless. Everything from Divinci to Goya to contemporary and modern art.

[Guest Crimson Spider]

Here in Southern Nevada I went to the Atomic Testing Museum as an assignment from my Art Appreciation class. The class blew, but the museum was awesome.


I had to drag my mother along, but she enjoyed the exhibit. Inside, there were various artifacts like camera reels and cameras used to film atomic explosions. A couple of x-ray images of the first nukes dropped a fraction of a second into the explosion.

As we walked through the part of the museum that you had to pay to enter, I was happy to show off my knowledge to my mother about the physics, effects, and politics of a nuclear explosion. I was also amazed at all of the artifacts and information that I didn't know about. They had a "Atomic Bomb Survival Kit", which had inside of it Gold, Rupies (whatever the Russian currency is called), condoms, and medication.

Along with all of the videos reels from propaganda, there was the "atomic test simulation chamber". What you would do is sit on a hard wood bench, which would shake violently and blow air very loudly at you as they showed a high-definition reel of a simulated atomic explosion.

This museum, it pretty much has everything that you would need to know about the Atomic Bomb. From physics, to politics, everything is contained within.


Afterwards, I went to the gift shop and bought myself a magic-card Periodic Table of Elements and a steel mug that I still drink from today.

[SaiyanPrincessX]

[SIZE="1"]I've been to various museums, most recenly..well a few months ago, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Israel. That was amazing, and depressing all at once. It would probebly take you a whole day to walk through the whole place, if you looked at everything. Maybe longer. The architecture of the main building itself was amazing.

I remember one specific building I walked into, I actually wasn't even sure I was allowed in. It was pitch black, and I could hear talking coming from somewhere in a low voice. It was like a creepy movie. When I walked inside it was all dark, but you could see these glass panels everywhere with I think writing on them(or maybe it was pictures), I can't remember exactly, and a recording of every single person who died in the holocaust. So you would hear random names being said, in a dark room, with only a little light shining on these glass panels. Its hard to explain, but it was pretty eerie.[/SIZE]

[GANTZ]

[COLOR="DarkRed"]I have only ever been to one museum, but it was a pretty
damn good one. I speak of the British Museum in London.
Everything about it was awesome, from the building itself
ti the exhibits. There were amazing Egyptian sarcophagi,
mummies, large statues, ancient Greek art, old weapons
and armor. All in all, it freakin' rocked.[/COLOR][B] [COLOR="Navy"]Hardcore.[/COLOR]
[/B]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

I never made it to the British Museum in London, I did make it to the Tower of London, Warwick Castle, and Stone henge. The good thing about visiting England is you get a museum almost whatever site you visit.

I'll have to say the same for the ToL, WC and SH they were all three awesome.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='takoyuki'][COLOR="DarkRed"]I have only ever been to one museum, but it was a pretty
damn good one. I speak of the British Museum in London.
Everything about it was awesome, from the building itself
ti the exhibits. There were amazing Egyptian sarcophagi,
mummies, large statues, ancient Greek art, old weapons
and armor. All in all, it freakin' rocked.[/COLOR][B] [COLOR="Navy"]Hardcore.[/COLOR]
[/B][/QUOTE]

[color=#9933ff]Yeah if I ever make it to the UK that sounds like somewhere I'd want to go. But first the economy over in the US has to pick up or I'll go broke just from the exchange rate (Please vote for Obama!)

I haven't gone yet this year, but another museum I had fun with was the Genessee Country Museum in Genessee county just west of me (forty-five minutes and according to mapquest the place doesn't exist) I went there for the first time with my daughter last year.

What this place basically is is a living history museum set in the 19th century. They have a farm with animals a forge a church-the last time we went someone was getting married in there- and some other old buildings that were over 200 years old. THey have actors or something dressed up in early to mid 19th century costumes for living on the frontier- which is pretty much what it was like in Western New York state for the first part of the nineteenth century. It was actually pretty interesting.

Another living history museum is near Cooperstown , New York but Iforgot the name of the place since I haven't been there since I was about fourteen. It's about the same thing, but larger.

Okay since I live in Rochester which is the film capitol of the world- or so we like to think- I guess I have to talk about the George Eastman House which I've only been to once- which was back in 2002 and they had an exhibit with pictures from 9/11. George Eastman was the founder of Eastman Kodak Company in I think 1885 or something like that. The museum is set up at his house and has a lot of his stuff there. BUt like I said I've only been there once.

If this thread keeps up I'll try to remember either the 1st Cav and 4th ID museums on Ft. Hood (They're free admission) or the New York State History Museum in Albany. Whichever comes up first[/color]