Museums – Valerie's Voice

The Bell Museum

When our boys were young, we went several times to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History on the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis campus. It was a fun outing, and it was free back then.

The name has been shortened to Bell Museum.

In 2018 they built a new, beautiful building and moved from the Minneapolis campus to the St. Paul campus. And, they added a planetarium.

A much larger and modern building houses the Bell Museum and planetarium.

I was excited to see the planetarium. I remember going to the planetarium in the downtown Minneapolis library when I was in elementary school. I really enjoyed it.

I looked up the Minneapolis Public Library‘s history and discovered it opened in 1889 along 10^th street and Hennepin Avenue. But that’s not where I remembered it.

That library became overcrowded and out of date. In 1961 a new Minneapolis Public Library opened at 4^thstreet and Nicollet Ave. That’s where I remembered it. It too, has since been rebuilt (replacing the old stone castle-like building with a four-story glass and steel building , but no planetarium.) The one I went to as a child included a planetarium, and a small museum of Egyptian mummies, in its basement (which I had forgotten about until my memory was triggered when reading about it.)

Our massive, wonderful galaxy of stars shown in the planetarium.

All that to say, we went to visit the new Bell Museum last week. We paid extra to see the planetarium show…which was titled Minnesota Skies. This was a narrated program by a staff member interacting with the audience. I was disappointed because I was expecting to see more dark sky and starry, starry night scenes.

There were a few other choices for planetarium shows…so I suspect there are ones similar to the ones I remembered seeing as a child. I’ll have to try again.

Many of the dioramas in the natural history part of the building were the same ones in the old Bell Museum space.

When they moved to the new building, they didn’t take the scenes apart…they moved the entire displays. They were well-done when they were created, so it made sense to keep them intact.

A beautiful fawn in one of the dioramas.

The new Bell Museum has so much more to offer, with a hands-on area and many more displays about outer space and other natural history.

Apparently there are gardens to explore in the summer.

The Bell Museum is a great resource for the Twin Cities…although now they charge a fee to get in. And you have to pay for parking. That’s disappointing, because that can be restrictive for young families. However, I’m sure it’s a great destination for school field trips so many children can experience this great place.

A Colorful Adventure

We experienced some colorful adventures on our trip. One being in the “American Sign Museum” in Cincinnati, Ohio.

After seeing some neon sign pictures recently, I became intrigued. I wondered if there was a neon sign museum anywhere in the U.S. I searched the internet and found a few…the largest being The Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California. There was also The National Sign Museum in The Dalles, Oregon, The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio and The Lost Highway Museum (a private collection in Washington).

I thought if our undetermined route takes us near Cincinnati, it might be possible to check out the American Sign Museum on our way home from our recent roadtrip…and we did. The museum is small (it’s hoping to expand) but it was full of fun signs (not all neon) and signage history.

We enjoyed our time looking at all the different types and styles of signs and we felt it was worth the stop. I would consider going to other sign museums, if there was an opportunity to do so.

I was impressed by all the figures neon signs could portray. They are truly works of art. Each one unique.

Color, color… wonderful, bright color.

Who knew it would be so interesting to see a collection of old signs, but it was!

It is great to know neon signs continue to be crafted.

On our way out of town, we drove past this old Dairy Queen with its own antique signage.

Color, color… so much color. This was one of two colorful adventures on this trip. Stay tuned for another one.

John Deere Tractor Museum

We were staying near Waterloo Iowa for a few days this week, on a bike trip with friends.We’ve never been to Waterloo. While we enjoyed Cedar Falls (a neighboring town) better, Waterloo boasted a John Deere Tractor Museum.

Because it was raining, we decided to visit this tractor museum, since we couldn’t ride our bicycles. The museum was well done. It was sizeable. And it was free!

John Deere Waterloo Boy Model “N” Tractor, 1920 in the lobby of the museum.

I find these early steel wheels very interesting.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. His family never owned a John Deere tractor. They had Farmall and International Harvesters. There seems to be a lot of rivalry, and friendly banter, between tractor owners…but Gary found this museum – focusing on these green tractors – very interesting. As did we all.

Gary reminiscing using a slide rule and drafting board work stations in the “good old days” when he did engineering work.

As per usual, interesting stories were told on story boards throughout the museum.

Tractors have come a long way…from the walking plow to the modern, gigantic tractors that have several steps to get up into the cab…

I don’t remember the model of this huge tractor.

…and, that cab has air conditioning, cushioned seats, wrap-around windows and a state-of-the-art computer system. I know we’ve all seen these big machines in the fields. At night they look like space aliens out there.

The steps up into the cab of this tractor.

John Deere also manufactures the riding lawn mowers that are popular, and they used to make bicycles. In fact, a guy in our group used to own a John Deere bicycle…he was lamenting the fact that he got rid of it.

The museum was informative, and we all enjoyed it. It is definitely worth a visit…we would go to visit it again, given the chance.

When we were through the museum, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and we were able to get back to biking.

The National Quilt Museum

As I mentioned in my previous post, we stopped at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky on our way home from North Carolina. I had heard about this museum, and, since it was not too far off our route, we decided to stop and check it out.

This forest scene is probably my favorite quilt.

It did not disappoint, however I thought it would be larger and Gary thought it would be smaller, but it was just right.

This national museum displays, and collects, contemporary quilts…made within the last thirty years. There are no antique or restored quilts here.

In the main gallery there are several astonishing quilts to peruse. What craftsmanship…

What artistic ability…

What creativity…

We learned a few quilts are changed out every few weeks in the main gallery, so the exhibit is constantly changing.

There were various quilts on display. All lovely…

All intricate…

All interesting…

All spectacular…

All different…

There were temporary exhibits too, which were interesting and fun to see. One was an exhibit of quilts students K-12 had made, as their first attempt at quilting.

There was an exhibit of miniature quilts.

This is a miniature quilt. A miniature quilt has to be 24″x24″ or less. I think most were 12″x12″.

There were two temporary exhibits by two different textile artists.

Special exhibit: Valerie C. White “Roots and Refuge”

Another piece by Valerie C. White. I liked this one because we saw Guinea Fowl in Africa and I loved their polka dot feathers.

Quilts are truly works of art. We both enjoyed this stop. It was worth our time to stretch our legs, relax, and enjoy exquisite artistry of quilt making.