Seattle Museums
Having finally recovered from my trip, I thought I'd share my experiences with the three museums we saw:
The Museum of Flight is a wonderful place, even if airplanes don't set you on fire. Admittedly the main displays are airplanes, but they work hard to keep you seeing them from the pilot's viewpoint, so you never forget the people who flew them -- or flew in them.
Across the street from the main buildings they have several planes that have been donated to them, including a Concorde and an Air Force One build in 1958, downgraded in 1962 and finally retired in 1996. The technology looks very 70s, but my favorite thing was the warning added after going into service that was typed out on that old labeling tape that is hard plastic and the letters show up white. It basically said 'don't turn on the water while water is being pumped into the plane or the pressure will blow out the faucet.' Another fun warning label was the 'not secure' label over the phone handsets. And as big as the Air Force One was, the Concorde was tiny! The aisle was so narrow, with acrylic shielding over the seats, that I had to sidestep the whole way. I know I'm broad in the hips, but I'm not *that* broad!
The main gallery is bright spacious and airy, with simulators in a couple of the corners so that you can see how it feels to fly a fighter jet. They also have a couple of properly dressed for the period mannequins next to one of the 1920's planes.
My favorite wing was the 'Personal Courage Wing' which is split into two floors with the upper floor dedicated to WWI and the lower floor full of WWII planes and memorabilia. I was much more interested in the WWI floor, since that's a period of time I don't know a lot of detail on, and almost every plane had uniform pieces with it, showing what they wore. Even more interesting was the little tidbits of interviews and stories that they had scattered around the exhibits, where you could hear actors giving voice to the pilots stories of frostbite, dog-fights, the freedom of flying and the hazards of answering nature's call while flying. Most of the planes of WWI on display are reproductions, since after the war the remaining planes were often used for training new pilots or as targets for artillery drills.
The most fascinating display on the WWII floor was on the WASPs -- the women who flew planes but weren't allowed to be 'pilots'. They flew planes from factories to bases for delivery to war zones, and had to meet high qualifications, but weren't paid to ge that training. I remember one of the items on display was an acceptance letter where the woman was told that she had to report for duty on a certain date, and that no allowance was made for her travel or accommodations. She had to get there on her own, and if she showed up late she wouldn't be accepted.
If I lived in the area I would definitely visit the place on a regular basis.
MOHAI, as it's called by the locals, is a very child-friendly museum, with interactive displays on local history, but I went there to see the display on the Theatre du Mode, the wire-frame fashion mannequins that were created by the french couturier houses after WWII and toured Europe and the US. They are under 30" tall, and wonderful examples of the dressmakers art. I spent well over an hour just gazing at them and drinking in the details such as shaped tucks, tiny shoes and extravagant hairstyles. I also bought the book. *g* When I saw that this was on display while I was planning our trip I *knew* that this was something I wanted to see. I've always been fascinated with the fashion revolution of post-WWII fashion. If you are in the area (or going to be there before is closes on July 16, 2006) and are interested in fashion I highly recommend going to see it.
The rest of the museum was 'cute' but very clean-cut history in comparison to what we'd been told by the guides on the Underground Tour. Seeing the 1953 mural of the fire probably would have been more interesting if we'd seen it *before* seeing the pictures of the real thing, although I did find it interesting that the whole thing is the fault of someone who tried to put out a glue fire with water.
The one realistic history they do cover is the salmon industry -- complete with a mock-up of a cannery-worker's dorm, with quotes on the walls talking about how horribly the workers were treated and how hard the life is. From almost every part of the museum you can hear kids playing with the interactive displays including one where you could see how fast you can pull up 20 and 40 pound salmon -- which bang back down to the bottom.
One of the strangest things on display was the 'Toe' truck, an actual working tow-truck that had been made out of a VW bug that has toes on top of the cab and the whole thing painted a rather comical shade of pink -- except for the toe-nails which were ivory colored.
The Burke Museum was actually one of the more expensive museums to visit if only because it's on the campus of the University of Washington and you have to pay $10.00 for parking. Heck, it's only $8.00 to at UCLA! However, since they had an exhibit on Maori weaving which was very cool. Like many tribal societies, the Maori of New Zealand were loosing their traditional culture, but have started to revive their arts, including weaving cloaks, skirts, aprons and shirts from the native plant materials and ornamented with shells, stones and feathers.
The exhibit was fascinating, but more fascinating for me was the small display next to it of Cloaks of the Northwest tribes, another group trying to revive their traditional arts. While the Maori decorated their cloaks by adding luxury materials like brightly colored feathers, the Northwest tribal cloaks were decorated with patterns woven into the cloth. I picked up a book on them and was amazed to find that the weaving of these cloaks has more in common with the basketry of the tribes than with traditional old-world weaving techniques. It's really interested me and made me think about how to apply those techniques in counted thread embroidery or some other decorative technique -- since I'm not planning on weaving a Raven Cloak.
The rest of the museum was, like the MOHAI, very kid-friendly, with a very cute interactive system where kids could get a 'passport' through time and then stamp their way from pre-history up to the current era in Washington state geology. The lower floor was devoted to the 'peoples of the pacific rim' with small displays of just about everyone. As Eric put it "They were trying not to offend anyone."
The Museum of Flight is a wonderful place, even if airplanes don't set you on fire. Admittedly the main displays are airplanes, but they work hard to keep you seeing them from the pilot's viewpoint, so you never forget the people who flew them -- or flew in them.
Across the street from the main buildings they have several planes that have been donated to them, including a Concorde and an Air Force One build in 1958, downgraded in 1962 and finally retired in 1996. The technology looks very 70s, but my favorite thing was the warning added after going into service that was typed out on that old labeling tape that is hard plastic and the letters show up white. It basically said 'don't turn on the water while water is being pumped into the plane or the pressure will blow out the faucet.' Another fun warning label was the 'not secure' label over the phone handsets. And as big as the Air Force One was, the Concorde was tiny! The aisle was so narrow, with acrylic shielding over the seats, that I had to sidestep the whole way. I know I'm broad in the hips, but I'm not *that* broad!
The main gallery is bright spacious and airy, with simulators in a couple of the corners so that you can see how it feels to fly a fighter jet. They also have a couple of properly dressed for the period mannequins next to one of the 1920's planes.
My favorite wing was the 'Personal Courage Wing' which is split into two floors with the upper floor dedicated to WWI and the lower floor full of WWII planes and memorabilia. I was much more interested in the WWI floor, since that's a period of time I don't know a lot of detail on, and almost every plane had uniform pieces with it, showing what they wore. Even more interesting was the little tidbits of interviews and stories that they had scattered around the exhibits, where you could hear actors giving voice to the pilots stories of frostbite, dog-fights, the freedom of flying and the hazards of answering nature's call while flying. Most of the planes of WWI on display are reproductions, since after the war the remaining planes were often used for training new pilots or as targets for artillery drills.
The most fascinating display on the WWII floor was on the WASPs -- the women who flew planes but weren't allowed to be 'pilots'. They flew planes from factories to bases for delivery to war zones, and had to meet high qualifications, but weren't paid to ge that training. I remember one of the items on display was an acceptance letter where the woman was told that she had to report for duty on a certain date, and that no allowance was made for her travel or accommodations. She had to get there on her own, and if she showed up late she wouldn't be accepted.
If I lived in the area I would definitely visit the place on a regular basis.
MOHAI, as it's called by the locals, is a very child-friendly museum, with interactive displays on local history, but I went there to see the display on the Theatre du Mode, the wire-frame fashion mannequins that were created by the french couturier houses after WWII and toured Europe and the US. They are under 30" tall, and wonderful examples of the dressmakers art. I spent well over an hour just gazing at them and drinking in the details such as shaped tucks, tiny shoes and extravagant hairstyles. I also bought the book. *g* When I saw that this was on display while I was planning our trip I *knew* that this was something I wanted to see. I've always been fascinated with the fashion revolution of post-WWII fashion. If you are in the area (or going to be there before is closes on July 16, 2006) and are interested in fashion I highly recommend going to see it.
The rest of the museum was 'cute' but very clean-cut history in comparison to what we'd been told by the guides on the Underground Tour. Seeing the 1953 mural of the fire probably would have been more interesting if we'd seen it *before* seeing the pictures of the real thing, although I did find it interesting that the whole thing is the fault of someone who tried to put out a glue fire with water.
The one realistic history they do cover is the salmon industry -- complete with a mock-up of a cannery-worker's dorm, with quotes on the walls talking about how horribly the workers were treated and how hard the life is. From almost every part of the museum you can hear kids playing with the interactive displays including one where you could see how fast you can pull up 20 and 40 pound salmon -- which bang back down to the bottom.
One of the strangest things on display was the 'Toe' truck, an actual working tow-truck that had been made out of a VW bug that has toes on top of the cab and the whole thing painted a rather comical shade of pink -- except for the toe-nails which were ivory colored.
The Burke Museum was actually one of the more expensive museums to visit if only because it's on the campus of the University of Washington and you have to pay $10.00 for parking. Heck, it's only $8.00 to at UCLA! However, since they had an exhibit on Maori weaving which was very cool. Like many tribal societies, the Maori of New Zealand were loosing their traditional culture, but have started to revive their arts, including weaving cloaks, skirts, aprons and shirts from the native plant materials and ornamented with shells, stones and feathers.
The exhibit was fascinating, but more fascinating for me was the small display next to it of Cloaks of the Northwest tribes, another group trying to revive their traditional arts. While the Maori decorated their cloaks by adding luxury materials like brightly colored feathers, the Northwest tribal cloaks were decorated with patterns woven into the cloth. I picked up a book on them and was amazed to find that the weaving of these cloaks has more in common with the basketry of the tribes than with traditional old-world weaving techniques. It's really interested me and made me think about how to apply those techniques in counted thread embroidery or some other decorative technique -- since I'm not planning on weaving a Raven Cloak.
The rest of the museum was, like the MOHAI, very kid-friendly, with a very cute interactive system where kids could get a 'passport' through time and then stamp their way from pre-history up to the current era in Washington state geology. The lower floor was devoted to the 'peoples of the pacific rim' with small displays of just about everyone. As Eric put it "They were trying not to offend anyone."