The Academy of Natural Sciences was a different type of museum than the ones we have visited before. Out of all the places it was probably my least favorite museum. Now, I still thought the place was very neat and people are able to learn from it, but I am more of history of the people person, so animals don't really do it for me. The museum itself was very nice and I couldn't believe that most of the animals have been there since the 1930's. They looked it great shape and you could tell the staff of the museum really takes care of them and takes pride in keeping the environments they are in 100% factual. In Michelle Henning's piece she brings up a point that I didn't really think about before, that when the person is looking at something at a natural science museum the person has to look very carefully, just like they would at an art museum. Just like paintings and pictures, the animals have so much detail to them and the surroundings around them. Our tour guide told us to that in the one diorama and you could see so much more when you gave it an in depth look. You could see little birds on the animals and plants, different types of plants, and you had little animals hiding in the back. To appreciate a piece of art you have to look at all the details and that was the same for these different "environments" for each species.
The Academy was one of the first of its kind and it's remarkable that it's been opened up with most of the same pieces for this long. You brought up on the tour how Hollywood was starting up just around the same time as this. This gave the people an actual feel for what it would be like to live in a world far from their own when they are looking at a 600 pound gorilla or a pack of lions. This was a new way of learning for the people of the time and it was going on during the Depression, so times were very tough for people and I would assume this gave people a cheap way to out and see new and wild objects. For using technology for the museum, I think that it has to be used the right or the Academy could lose its touch. It has been doing this since the 30's and I'm guessing it has been successful, but the times are changing to a more technological based society, so they are going to have to try and find a way to use it more. I think they are a in a tough position because they are right next to the Franklin Institute, which used technology so well and thats why people go there. The only thing I could think they could do would be to make a virtual tour of the different areas for each part of the museum. This would be something kids would enjoy and it's something I feel would even make adults interested. But the people working there seem to be pretty good at what they do, so I'll leave that up to them.
