Granbury Train Depot
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Tag Archives: museum
Bunratty Castle and Folk Park
Bunratty Castle and Folk Park in Killarney, Ireland was my idea of a perfect way to explore history. The castle was built in 1425 and restored in 1954. Visitors get to explore most of the castle, using tight, twisting steps. Folk Park consist of village buildings from the 19th century including farm buildings, a mill, church, homes, school and stores. We had a chance to visit with the mill worker and other members of our group were scolded by the school master.
http://www.shannonheritage.com/Attractions/BunrattyCastleandFolkPark/
It’s a Car, It’s a Plane
Everybody in my family except me had been to the Museum of Flight at 9404 East Marginal Way S. Seattle, WA 98108-4097. My dear daughter thought it was a good idea to take me here for mother’s day and a couple of weeks later here we are. The picture about shows a car that turns into a plane (or a plane that turns into a car).
The museum’s website states “The Museum of Flight’s fundamental goals are: to acquire and preserve a wide array of materials and artifacts relating to aviation and space history and to provide a center for the scholarly research of these materials and artifacts. The Museum holds one of the largest and most comprehensive air and space collections in the United States, containing millions of rare photographs and negatives, a world-class library, tens of thousands of artifacts, and over 150 rare aircraft and space vehicles.”
Musee Mecanique
San Francisco’s Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf is “one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines.” It is fascinating and free. We happily whiled away the better part of an hour playing games and watching amusements from our youth and earlier.
http://www.museemechanique.org/
Buffalo Soldiers Museum
The Buffalo Soldiers Museum at 1940 S. Wilkeson, Tacoma was in the news today http://www.thenewstribune.com//2012/02/18/2031079/buffalo-soldier-gone-but-story.html?storylink=fb My AAUW group was honored to have Jackie Jones-Hook, (one of our own!), tells us about the museum and the Buffalo Soldiers. Her father, William Jones, was a Buffalo Soldier and started the museum. Beginning next month, the museum will be open to the public and school groups by appointment. The buffalo head and buffalo skull are sure to be hits with the children!
Per wikipedia “the term Buffalo Soldiers became a generic term for all African-American soldiers” and indeed the museum covers a range of wars. We got to see most of a video about the soldiers, their bravery and the prejudice they experienced. Some of it was heart retching to see.
More information about the Buffalo Soldiers can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldier
Monorail & EMP
On Tuesday we did another Seattle day and visited the EMP Museum, which has two main components, the EMP (Electronic Music Project and the SFM (Science Fiction Museum). The museum is located in the Seattle Center near the Space Needle. Because of time restraints, we only did justice to the SFM. I loved the Battlestar Galactica exhibit. It reminded me how much I had enjoyed the series, And the Avatar exhibit was pretty cool too!
http://www.empmuseum.org/index.asp
Foss Waterway Seaport
This evening I went to a function at the Foss Waterway Seaport at 705 Dock Street, Tacoma. The museum aims to be the Puget Sound’s premier maritime education and recreation center. It features exhibit space, a Discovery Wharf (children’s activity area), guest moorage (closed for repair) and meeting spaces.
http://www.fosswaterwayseaport.org/index.php?p=WELCOME
Camp 6 Logging Camp, another victim of the economy
When we first moved to Tacoma over 20 years ago I remember visiting the Camp 6 Logging Exhibit in Point Defiance Park. Then, as in now, I love that this little slice of history had been preserved. Since that first time, I’ve gone back a couple of times a year, often seeing deer and once a fox. Once we took my young daughter on the Santa Train, which basically went into the forest a ways and then out again with, of course, Santa. It is an interesting, peaceful place. So it saddened me to learn that the exhibit might not reopen from its winter hiatus this year.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_logging_museum.html
The Camp 6 Logging Camp’s website states “Our mission is to preserve and present to the public a portion of Washington State’s history from the 1880’s through the 1940’s as it pertains to the “Steam Era of Logging”. With photographs, paintings, artifacts and equipment displays, Camp 6 takes the visitor back in time from when horse and ox teams hauled out the timber up through the last days that steam powered “Donkeys” and Railroads worked the woods. Visitors will see first hand what life in the logging camps and woods of Western Washington was like.”
Update 5/9/2011http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/09/1658977/point-defiance-parks-camp-6-closed.html Looks like they are closing for good. It’s a shame.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/05/09/1658977/point-defiance-parks-camp-6-closed.html
A Daily Suicide, Washington State History Museum
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
The Washington State History Museum, located at 1911 Pacific Avenue was today’s new place of the day and it was a real treat to have a chance to look around. The photo is of Handcrafted Native American masks in the Epidemic Memorial exhibit. The sign adjacent to the mask is titled Daily Suicide and in part states “Forty-five is another magic age for the Indian. That’s the age of death from alcoholism…it’s a daily suicide”. It’s a very powerful exhibit.
http://www.washingtonhistory.org/wshm/default.aspx
Since the orginal blog, it has been announced that the State History Museum will be closing. I hope not. It will be a tremendous loss for the State of Washington.
http://www.wshs.org/performanceMeasures/CustomerComments.aspx