PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than $20 million has been secured to reimagine two exhibits that feature a couple of the Franklin Institute’s most iconic display pieces. In celebration of the science museum's bicentennial, visitors will have new opportunities to explore its Giant Heart and its enormous locomotive.
One new exhibit, called Body Odyssey, explores the human body. The centerpiece of the $8.5 million project is the museum’s four-ton, walk-through model of the human heart.
“The Giant Heart, originally built in 1954, really was the largest, most immersive exhibition on the human body anywhere in the world at the time,” said Larry Dubinski, the museum’s president and CEO.
Originally constructed of papier-mâche, chicken wire and lumber, the display has been kept “beating” for some 70 years. At 15,000 times larger than a real heart, it has allowed millions of museum visitors to visualize the organ’s inner workings.
“It’s in a box right now to keep it safe as we are building things around it,” said Jayatri Das, chief bioscientist at the Franklin.
It’s being resuscitated again, and will soon feature new sensor and sound technology.
“What we are really excited about is that there is going to be a brand-new way to interact with the Giant Heart,” said Das. “Standing outside the heart, you can have your heart rate measured and then have the heart beat and lighting on the heart sync to your own heart beat.”
Displays on mental health will also be incorporated into the exhibit, which is expected to open on Nov. 23.
Another new $12 million exhibit, called the Hamilton Collections Gallery, is slated to open at the same time. Interactive displays and hundreds of artifacts in the museum's collection will be incorporated into the two-story space, where the floor was cut away to expose a steel-and-concrete structure that supports the 350-ton Baldwin 60000 locomotive prototype situated above.
The chairman and CEO of Baldwin Locomotives, Samuel V. Vauclain, who designed the one-of-a-kind prototype, donated it to the Franklin in 1933. His great-great grandson, Sam Hamilton, is a trustee of the Franklin and a board member of the Hamilton Family Trust, which contributed more than $8 million towards the Hamilton Collections Gallery.
“My hope is that kids will come in here and — obviously, be very excited by the train — but also get inspired by all of the inventions that have come in over the years,” said Hamilton.