Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute, the nation’s oldest science museum, is about to celebrate its 200th anniversary by opening two new exhibitions that extend some of its most popular existing exhibits.
The two exhibits open November 23, one focusing on the museum’s biggest single object, the immense Baldwin 6000 steam locomotive and the other built around one of its most popular items, the walk-through Giant Heart.
The gallery unveiling will reveal the Baldwin atop a modern architectural design—a cutaway floor with a two-story storage system rising from the foundation level, equipped to showcase thousands of artifacts now visible to the public for the first time. The cutaway provides an overhead view of the five original steel and concrete bridge structures supporting the 350-ton locomotive.
An imaginative new $8.5 million exhibit, Body Odyssey, features the iconic Giant Heart. The exhibit is a fascinating journey through the intricacies of the human body in a quest to achieve balance in life and well-being. The 8500-square-foot exhibit features larger-than-life installations, ultramodern simulations, and transportive experiences designed for collaboration and synchronization across three distinct areas: biological systems, biotech innovation, and personal health.
