| | Fort Worth Museum of Science and History | Hits 8 | | | | |
| | | | Site Information | | | Coming events, exhibits and educational programs, as well as information on the Noble Planetarium and the Omni Theatre.
| On May 21, 1941, a charter to establish a Fort Worth Children’s Museum was filed with the State of Texas. The purposes of the new museum were listed as: “The maintenance of a place where geological, biological, and zoological collections may be housed; to increase and diffuse a knowledge and appreciation of history, art, and science; to preserve objects of historic, artistic, and scientific interests; and to offer popular instruction and opportunities for esthetic enjoyment.”
The museum’s history actually began in 1939 when the local council of Administrative Women in Education began a study of children’s museums, with the idea of starting one in Fort Worth. Two years later the charter was filed, but it would be almost four years before the museum would find a physical home. With the help of the city’s school board, the museum opened in early 1945 in two rooms in De Zavala Elementary School.
In 1947 the museum moved into the large R.E. Harding House at 1306 Summit, where it kept growing in size and popularity. Three years later two significant entities appeared: The Ladies Auxiliary of the Fort Worth Children’s Museum (now the Museum Guild), and “The Frisky and Blossom Club,” the forerunner of Museum School®. Soon it became apparent that a much larger facility was needed to serve the growing needs of the community. Ground was broken for a new facility in 1952. On January 25, 1954, the museum’s present building at 1501 Montgomery Street was opened to the public. The following year the Charlie Mary Noble Planetarium, the first public planetarium in the region, opened.
In 1968 the name was changed to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History so that adults even without children could enjoy the Museum. It worked! Today more than half the Museum’s visitors are adults. Much of that is due to the addition of the Omni Theater in 1983. The Omni was the first IMAX® dome theater in the Southwest and continues to be one of the most successful in the world.
During its first 40 years, the Museum was a quiet place where one could dream of the past or contemplate the future in relative solitude. Permanent exhibits included the History of Medicine, Your Body, IBM Calculators and Computers, Rocks and Fossils, Texas History, and Man and His Possessions. All that changed a little over a decade ago. Thanks to collaborations with other museums and science centers like San Francisco’s Exploratorium, the Museum now offers many large, world-class traveling exhibits that open visitors to new worlds of learning. Static displays have been replaced by interactive, hands-on exhibits like Lone Star Dinosaurs, DinoDig®, ExploraZone® and KIDSPACE®.
As a result, the Museum’s popularity has increased dramatically, and now, even on slow days, the hallways are filled with children. Attendance nears 1 million annually. And although its name, location, size, and scope have changed dramatically since 1941, the Museum still serves a similar purpose: to provide an extraordinary learning environment to all who pass through its doors.
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| | | Contact Information | | | Fort Worth Museum of Science and History 1501 Montgomery St. Fort Worth, TX 76107, Tel: 817-255-9300 Toll Free: 888-255-9300 Fax: 817-732-7635 http://www.fwmuseum.org E-mail Fort Worth Museum of Science and History | | | | If you're the owner or webmaster of this site then please Claim this Link Once you claim this link and we approve it you will be the only one who can modify the listing in the future. |
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| | Date Added: Sat Sep 13 2003 | | Last Updated: Tue Sep 13 2005 | | | | |
