After
taking care of a few chores in Georgetown today we drove north on I75
to the Cincinnati
Museum Center
to see the traveling exhibit on ancient Egypt. This is the first
time that I had been to the museum since it reopened following
significant structural repairs and upgrades to the building and
exhibits. As members of CMC we have been to many traveling exhibits
that have all been excellent. Some of the notable recent exhibits
have included, the photography of Tsarina Alexandria, Viking culture,
the Dead Sea Scrolls and many others.
I
had been fighting a cold so I slept for most of the trip north while
Mary drove. Our membership got us free parking at the museum and we
arrived at the exhibit hall shortly before our scheduled 2:15 entry
time. We saw only about 10 other guests entering the exhibit at our
time. We were pleased that a school bus and a charter bus pulled up
to the museum to take guests for departure as we were arriving.
Because most people tend to go through a museum much more quickly
than us, we had the exhibit to ourselves after we have been in the
displays for about an hour. It was nice to be able to spend as much
time as we liked looking at each artifact without feeling rushed.
There
was a great deal of information presented on life during the early,
middle and late kingdoms as well as social structure, technologies
and geography. There were a number of interactive displays where
visitors could explore hieroglyphics, mummification and other topics.
One display that especially interested up was a 360 holographic
movie of mummification
We
were amazed not only with the number of artifacts but the quality of
the items displayed. Many of the display pieces were over 3000 years
old yet appeared to be like new. I suppose since the items would
have been stowed in a dry desert climate deep in a pyramid or other
safe location there is no reason that they should appear other than
like new.
We
stayed in the Egypt exhibit until nearly 5 pm then took a quick walk
through some of the other areas of the museum that have reopened. We
didn’t go into the children’s museum but it appeared to have been
overhauled. We know that Peter can spend hours in there without ever
tiring for something to do. There is a new activity section where
guests can blow smoke rings with dry ice, float paper cones up a wind
tube, drop a bowling ball to propel a tennis ball up into a net or
use low frequency sound to make patterns in sand.
The Cincinnati
history section is still incomplete but the sections that are open
are very nice. The city scale model with trains and street cars has
been updated and only one car, a 1950
Crosley Hotshot,
donated by the grandparents
of Otto Warmbier, was on display. We
spent a good bit of time in a new exhibit dedicated to Cincinnati’s
own Neil Armstrong on the 50th
anniversary of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon walk. The 360 degree footage
of the lunar landing and walks on the surface were thrilling to
relive. The display was interesting and informative. We
took a quick walk through the newly displayed dinosaur fossils then
made our way to the exit. On our way out we noticed that the tile
mosaics in the large entry had been nicely cleaned and restored.
Although
we left the museum at the peak of rush hour, the traffic on I75 south
wasn’t as bad as we expected. We made it back home to Georgetown
in a little over an hour. We always enjoy our visits to the
Cincinnati Museum Center and can’t wait to see what will be coming
after the Egypt exhibit leaves in August.