Exhibit Fabrication Services

In the Dark

(2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 ft., currently on tour)

This replica of a Kentucky limestone cavern is one of the highlights of this highly interactive exhibit. Five worlds in the dark—caves, deep sea, underground, a desert at night, and a swamp at night—and how humans have adapted to darkness are explored in this popular exhibit. Below, a whole body interactive turns this visitor into a jellyfish. Interactive games explore the food web and adaptations; accurate dioramas reveal previously unseen worlds.

Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz 70 Years Later

(Premiered January 2015 at National Underground Railroad Freedom Center)

In fall of 2014, the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education partnered with Cincinnati Museum Center, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and local collector Steven Cassidy to create an original exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and of thousands of other Nazi camps. Debuting at Freedom Center from Jan. 29 through May 27, 2015, Unlocking the Gates of Auschwitz 70 Years Later led visitors to discover stories of humanity and survival within the Auschwitz concentration camp, bringing together powerful local Holocaust survivor accounts with never-before-seen artifacts and rare images from Cassidy’s collection, as well as from the American Jewish Archives, Klau Library and the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education. The exhibition was brought to Cincinnati through the generous support of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati and The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation.

Freedom's Sisters

(2,500 ft., premiered March 2008 at Cincinnati Museum Center)

An exhibition created by Cincinnati Museum Center, organized for travel by Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services and made possible through the generous support of Ford Motor Company Fund. This exhibit celebrates 20 African American women—from key 19th century historical figures to contemporary leaders—who have fought for equality for people of color. Visitors enter the pages of history, meeting each of these women via large format photographs and a short biography. Artifacts and multimedia elements bring their stories to life. Visitors “sit” next to Rosa Parks on the bus. A barking dog confronts visitors as civil rights activists were confronted. A jar of jelly beans represents unfair voting restrictions.

The World Beneath Your Feet

An installation completed for the Butler County (Ohio) Soil & Water Conservation District. Cincinnati Museum Center staff outfitted a 35 ft. trailer with an exhibit that allows visitors to walk through an underground world highlighted by interactive question and answer tools, specimen drawers housing fossils and models of aquatic creatures, storm drains, drainage tile, plant roots and an aquifer. Realistic dioramas, specimens, question and answer flips and fossil drawers get kids into dirt and water without getting them dirty. A squirrel’s winter cache.

EnterTrainment Junction

For a new entertainment destination north of Cincinnati in Butler County, Cincinnati Museum Center constructed several electronic units for the railroad museum, a 5,000 ft. section of the 80,000 ft. facility designed for train enthusiasts. Interactive kiosks quiz visitors on their train knowledge. Scrim units provide a before and after look at train icons throughout history.

Liberty on the Border: A Civil War Exhibit

(2,500 ft., tour ended 2015)

Interactive decision kiosks, maps, sixteen cases of artifacts and audiovisuals allow visitors to examine the concept of “borders”—physical, cultural, ideological—during the American Civil War. Life-size stages—a recruiting station, a soldier’s tent, Camp Nelson and a sanitary fair—afford opportunities for first-person interpretation. Cincinnati Museum Center staff downsized a 10,000 sq. ft. exhibit into this popular 2,500 sq. ft. version that has traveled to Kentucky, Michigan, California, Washington, Georgia, Indiana, and Florida.

Earthworks: Virtual Explorations of the Ancient Ohio Valley

(500 ft., 2006-2009)

Created in conjunction with the Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Archaeological and Historical Sites (CERHAS), Earthworks utilizes visual imaging technology developed by CERHAS, touchable models and two-dimensional graphics to “see” earthen effigies, embankments, mounds, roadways and geometric enclosures of astonishing size and precision that were built between 800 and 2,400 years ago. Interactive components allow visitors to “tour” electronically reconstructed models of earthworks that time and human presence have eroded down to nearly nothing.

Our Weakening Web: The Story of Extinction

(1,800 ft., 1994-2011)

The causes of extinction are explored through dioramas and interactives. This is Cincinnati Museum Center’s first traveling exhibit. Below, a mother fox negotiates a construction site that threatens her nearby den. Visitors search out a safe path for a black bear trying to move from one forested area to another through a city.

Children Just Like Me

(2,500 ft., on tour through mid-2015)

One of Cincinnati Museum Center’s most popular traveling exhibits, Children Just Like Me introduces kids to their counterparts around the world. Based on the Dorling Kindersley book by the same name, this exhibit encourages kids to DO: try on clothes, play games, do chores, explore the ways in which we are not so different while celebrating the things that make us all unique.

KidsCommons

A children’s museum in Columbus, Indiana

A new permanent installation called Explorahouse gets kids interested in the “behind the scenes” of their own houses. This space encourages movement and exploration into light, heat and how water moves through their homes. The Children’s Garden, another permanent installation, is an interactive play area that brings the outdoors inside and gives kids a large, colorful way to explore their own backyards.

Dinosaurs Unearthed

In 2009, Cincinnati Museum Center partnered with Dinosaurs Unearthed to build interactives to enhance Dinosaurs Unearthed’s collection of exciting servomotordriven, life-sized dinosaurs. The first set of three kiosks premiered at the St. Louis Science Center with the opening of the 15,000 sq. ft. Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. A fourth kiosk, which tests guests’ knowledge about what is and is not a dinosaur, premiered at two more venues in Spring 2010. Each kiosk introduces visitors to various adaptations of dinosaurs: digestion, sounds and anatomy. A real, touchable bone specimen is the centerpiece of the anatomy kiosk. Visitors manipulate a simulated chicken gizzard to understand how gastroliths worked. A mechanical interactive produces the kind of sounds that duck-billed dinosaurs might have made in the way the hollow bones of the skull would have worked.

Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America

Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America records and celebrates the indelible legacy these women have left on this country since they first landed here more than 300 years ago. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious retained CMC as the Institution of Record and contracted Museum Center to create mounts, prepare the exhibit for travel and manage the exhibit tour. After its premiere in Cincinnati, Women & Spirit opened at The Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future in Dallas followed by the Ripley International Gallery at the Smithsonian.