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Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
2 reviews for Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium
As a former Pink Palace paleontologist, keep in mind my review is highly biased:
It's freakin' awesome.
The Pink Palace is separated into three main parts: the museum, the planetarium, and the IMAX. It's a museum of history and science, NOT an art museum; the majority of the exhibits are hands-on and encourage learning.
The museum's permanent collection includes sections on local history (from native americana to slavery to Yellow Fever to a completely restored Piggly Wiggly store) and natural history (geology, biology, paleontology, and- of course!- dinosaurs). There is usually at least one temporary exhibit of local interest and at least one national traveling exhibit.
The IMAX shows the newest IMAX movies going around the country; the planetarium shows change regularly, and are always entertainingly narrated.
The Children's Museum is great, but can cause the adult mind to turn to mush. The Brooks and Dixon Museums are wonderful repositories of art in Memphis, but will encourage your children to have a complete hysterical nervous breakdown of boredom.
If you have kids and can only keep them calm for one museum trip (and prefer to learn something yourself), put the Pink Palace on your list.
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Best. Museum. Ever.
For my 100th review, I have chosen one of my favorite places in the entire world. I've loved the Pink Palace since I was three years old and would beg my mom for a quarter so I could drop it in a coin box next to the animatronic Triceratops and make it stomp and roar (when I was a kid it was totally ferocious and awesome; now it just looks like a Chuck E Cheese reject).
There's plenty to see here, so give yourself a long time. Popular exhibits include the exact replica of the first Piggly Wiggly store from more than one hundred years ago, Elvis's army uniform, and a tiny mechanical circus that was built forever ago and still runs periodically throughout the day (be prepared to be creeped out by the segregated seats, though). My favorite displays, because I'm a cheap date who can be entertained and delighted by pretty much anything as long as it makes me laugh, are the bizarre plaster scene of a Civil War soldier getting his leg amputated and screaming in horror, and the room full of regional taxidermy. It's a scene to behold, I tell you. Approximately twenty stuffed animals are thrown in a relatively small room with fake trees and plants, and it's set up to look like a realistic scene in the woods. The animals are grouped together not because of biological or habitat similarities; they're on the same display solely because they're all native to the Mid-South area. There's a dog facing off with a bear, a raccoons staring down a bunny rabbit, and a rabid-looking mountain lion or some shit with a poor dead animal dangling from its mouth. It looks like a photo that was taken just as all the animals met in the woods after traveling there from different directions, right before they all murdered each other. Every time I walk into this room I can't help but hop up and down and clap with delight like a five year old opening her presents at her birthday party. It's so messed up and weird.
There's plenty of valid content to behold here, both local and national- everything from antique gynecological equipment to a seismograph machine. It's also where Memphis's only IMAX theater is located, as well as the Pink Palace Planetarium which sadly seems to be constantly on the verge of being shut down due to low attendance and funding. But let's be honest- the best thing about the Pink Palace is the massive quantities of camp. I mean, come on; the infamous shrunken head is back on display, complete with a "recipe" so you can shrink your own. Tasty.
Free on Tuesday afternoons with a valid state ID!
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