Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium facts for kids
The Museum of Science & History - Pink Palace is a fun and educational museum in Memphis, Tennessee. It's a major science and history museum for the Mid-South area. You can explore everything from ancient history to modern chemistry here! More than 240,000 people visit the museum every year.
The Pink Palace is part of a bigger group called the Museum of Science & History - Memphis. This group includes many historic, educational, and tech attractions. The Lichterman Nature Center is also part of it. It was the first nature center in the U.S. to be officially recognized. There's also the Coon Creek Science Center. This center is for groups and has an amazing fossil site.
You can also visit two historic homes that are part of the museum. The Mallory-Neely House is a huge, three-story mansion built in 1852. It has 25 rooms and still has most of its original furniture! The Magevney House is an older, smaller cottage from the 1830s. It shows what a home might have looked like in 1850. It's one of the oldest houses left in Memphis.
Inside the museum, you'll find the AutoZone Dome at the Sharpe Planetarium. This planetarium has 165 seats. It shows amazing public shows with stars, images, and laser lights on a huge dome ceiling. There's also the Crew Training International 3D Giant Theater. It opened in 1995 and has a giant screen that's four stories tall! The Pink Palace, the Planetarium, and the 3D Theater are all officially recognized by the American Alliance of Museums.
The Pink Palace Mansion
The main building of the museum is covered in beautiful pink marble. The city of Memphis got this mansion when Clarence Saunders lost his money. He was the person who started Piggly Wiggly, the very first self-service grocery store.
Clarence Saunders began building this huge house in 1923. But he lost a lot of money because of problems on Wall Street. So, he lost his fortune and his home. In March 1930, after the big stock market crash, the Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts opened in the mansion.
The first exhibits had stuffed animals and birds. There were also dolls and old items from wealthy collectors. Plus, you could see things about Memphis history. This included Confederate military uniforms and other special items.
Exciting Museum Exhibits
The museum has many different exhibits about Memphis history. One cool exhibit is a copy of the first Piggly Wiggly store. This celebrates how Clarence Saunders invented the supermarket in 1916. He was from Memphis!
Other exhibits you can always see include Native American pottery from the 1400s. There are also artifacts from before Christopher Columbus came to America. You can see Clyde Parke's Miniature Circus, which is very detailed. There are also fossils and dinosaurs, and even mounted animals.
History exhibits teach you about music and cotton in Memphis. They also cover the Civil War and how women's roles changed over time. You can also learn about important Black Memphians. The museum also brings in several special exhibits each year.
Amazing Murals and Art
The main entrance lobby of the museum mansion has a special three-panel mural. A Memphis artist named Burton Callicott painted these murals. They show the discovery of the Mississippi River near Memphis. This happened when the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his men arrived. The murals also show their meetings with Native Americans.
These three murals were ordered in 1934. This was part of a government program called the Public Works of Art Project. President Franklin D. Roosevelt started this program. It was one of many art and public works projects. The goal was to give jobs to artists and others during the Great Depression. Burton Callicott, the artist, also taught at the Memphis College of Art. He passed away in 2004.
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