Friday, April 12, 2013

Some ephemera within the Chemical Heritage Foundation museum

There's a fabulous science museum tucked within the historic section of Philadelphia, within walking distance of Independence Hall, Christ Church Burial Ground, the United States Mint and many other well-known tourist destinations.

The museum is located within the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

While that name — it sounds like it could be the lobbying arm of Alcoa — might not scream far-out field trip!, don't let it fool you. The CHF museum is intellectually rewarding and full of surprises for those with an interest in science, history or both.

Oh, and admission is free.

We took Sarah there last month for her birthday. Her original desire for going centered around the museum's alchemy exhibits, as that topic has been of great interest to her. But we found much more that fascinating her (and us!) during the visit, including a towering periodic table video screen [see video].

Even better, we got to meet Manager of Museum Programs Gigi Naglak. She gave us a tour of some areas that aren't always open to the public and helped to further stoke Sarah's interest in alchemy, science and history. She really made Sarah's day, and we greatly appreciated how she took time out of hers.

Here are some snapshots I took of some of the historical ephemera that is featured in various museum exhibits. Maybe these will help stoke your interest in visiting this Philadelphia attraction.













Finally, here's a detail from Mattheus van Helmont's 17th century oil painting "The Alchemist." I don't think I need to explain what drew me to this piece, which is part of a CHF exhibit on artistic depictions of alchemy.

1 comment:

  1. I just have to second Chris's comments about how awesome this place was. I would recommend it as highly if not higher than anywhere we've gone to date in Pennsylvania (and I'm rather fond of my PA field trips!)

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