Cincinnati Museum Center

A few weeks ago Jason and I attended a Night at the Museum at the Cincinnati Museum Center with the University of Michigan Alumni Association.  We had not been to the museum since it had been finished, so we were very excited about this invite. 

The museum had been under construction since we moved to Cincinnati, but did finish about a year ago.  It was an extensive renovation – from what we understand costing significant dollars and was over two years.  They restored fundamentals in the building and also revamped also the exhibits.   They even uncovered additional space that could be utilized for additional exhibit capacity.

U of M had brought in three different sets of faculty to provide short lectures in three of the key areas within the museum.  

To start, we headed to the Dinosaur Hall to learn about fossils that had been found near the Licking River in the early 1700s.  The professor brought up a set of bones that had been found and brought to the King of France.  Once in France, they sat in a warehouse for some time before a precocious, young scientist found them.  From them, he deduced the theory of extinction.  The idea that an animal type may not be around forever.  That's pretty powerful...and came from the Ohio/Kentucky river valley based on woolly mammoth bones.  

The next stop was through the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery -- particularly relevant given the 50th moon landing this year and Ohio is a proud "space state."  A very popular Professor at U of M was an astronaut, Professor Tony England.  He was part of the second/third wave of Astronauts when NASA was looking for scientists to go to space.  He answered questions about his thoughts on the current space program and changes since he was up in space.  I never was able to take his class, but I definitely know who he is and always heard such wonderful things.

After this speech, we headed up to the the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center.  The Cincinnati Museum Center was actually a familiar spot for refugees to come through on their way to other parts of the US post-World War II.  One of the Professors in the School of Music has been researching what this music sounded like.  Pictures exist of the bands/orchestras in various concentration camps.  The collection of instruments is quite unique.  The music is similar to the popular songs of the days and often quite "uplifting."  Listening to a version of that they recorded, it is quite macabre.  She has found that the music was primarily used to encourage/force the prisoners to march in unison.  The manuscripts were not always written correctly, so they have been doing a massive effort to rectify the scores. before the music can be performed.   

After this session, we were able to wander the museum briefly before it closed.  We clearly headed to the Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission exhibit.  It has the command module from Columbia!  I really liked getting a sense of the scale of the module.  They also had a number of photographs from the moon.  

Overall, it was a really great night.  

Time in museum: 3 hrs

Times visited: 3

Overall: B+