Great Web Resource: The Dinosaur Database

Inevitably, when you work in any sort of science-adjacent museum, the topic of dinosaurs comes up. 

Does your museum have any?  What are the latest discoveries?  What did a Parasaurolophus look like?

A great web resource for anyone interested in dinosaurs is The Dinosaur Database.  There you'll find a broad collection of dinosaur names, pictures, and facts. This site was built using resources and databases assembled by hundreds of paleontologists over the past two decades.

So take a step into the past by clicking over to The Dinosaur Database!

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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Happy (Museum) Easter (Eggs)

I'm on the road in California, but in honor of the season, here's an encore post -- a homage to museum "Easter Eggs."  Enjoy!

 

Museum designers often add "Easter Eggs" to their work.  But not the brightly dyed or chocolatey varieties --- these are more akin to the hidden "Easter Eggs" that you may stumble across (or deliberately search out) inside video games, crossword puzzles, or DVDs.

For visitors, it's fun to feel like you've found a little "secret" inside a museum building or exhibition, and for designers, it's a little "trick" to reward visitors for carefully observing and examining things inside the museum.

"Exhibits as advent calendars" as Dan Spock has observed (to mix religious holiday metaphors a bit!)  So here are a few of my favorite museum easter eggs:

• Secret Elves at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science: Artist Kent R. Pendleton worked on many of the Museum's dioramas, but supposedly he wasn't allowed to sign his name to his work.  Instead, Pendleton included little "elfin" figures hidden throughout many of the displays.  There's a great blog posting about Pendleton's retro easter eggs!

• The Magic House Mouse:  The Magic House Children's Museum outside St. Louis has some wonderful exhibits, but one of my favorite "hidden gems" is the tiny decorated mouse hole near the baseboards in one of the galleries.  If you were just whizzing around you might not ever see it, but if you're willing to get down on your hands and knees you might see (as in the photo below) a "presidential" mouse:

• The "Hidden Tunnel" at Casa Loma:  Casa Loma is a gigantic historic house/castle outside Toronto that is filled with enough crazy details to keep even little kids interested during the self-guided tours.  One of the things I remember from a family visit (nearly 40 years ago!) was the cool secret tunnel, nearly 100 feet long, that was hidden behind a pivoting wall section (just like in all those scary movies --- but this was real!)  that led to the Casa's underground wine cellar:

Of course, some museums, like The City Museum, also in St. Louis, or the Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A., are practically interlocking collections of "easter eggs" or in-jokes, but that's certainly one aspect that makes them so popular.

What are some of your most memorable Museum Easter Eggs?  Let us know in the "Comments Section" below! 

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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"Don’t be the best. Be the only.”

'Tis the season when publications like USA Today and Parents Magazine trot out their click-bait "Best Museum" lists, and when museum staff everywhere cajole everyone they know to vote (repeatedly!) for their institution.

How can you compare two completely different museums, say the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and claim one of them is the "best" art museum?

The people who seem most interested in these "best museum" lists are executive directors chasing donors or museum marketers looking to gain some flimsy PR bragging rights.

As that great museum philosopher Jerry Garcia once said, 

"Don’t be the best. Be the only.”

Don't miss out on any ExhibiTricks posts! It's easy to get updates via email or your favorite news reader. Just click the "Sign up for Free ExhibiTricks Blog Updates" link on the upper right side of the blog.

Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

If you enjoy the blog, you can help keep it free to read and free from ads by supporting ExhibiTricks through our PayPal "Tip Jar"