We visited the Bishop Museum in Honolulu today. For us, the most captivating display was easily the 10 animatronic dinosaurs, shown in the short 45 second video above. Watch to the end to see Evelyn’s reaction… ☺
The Bishop Museum is primarily comprised of three main exhibit buildings, plus a planetarium that was closed due to COVID restrictions. The museum was originally created in 1889.
Though this is not an art museum, there are a few scattered local art pieces around the grounds, including the excellent mural (right).
When first entering the museum, the Kahili Room is the first stop. It is mostly composed of paintings of past Kings and rulers of Hawaii. You can learn about feather standards here.
The next display focusses on historic Hawaiian cultures living with the sea. Being a series of small islands thousands of miles from other populated areas, they developed ocean-faring outriggers early, and the sea life has always been a primary source of food.
Surrounding the hanging displays of boats and sea life, were other cultural displays. These included busts of European rulers (top-middle and middle), scale models of boat styles used by pre-European Hawaiians (upper-left), and ceremonial masks (bottom-left and bottom-middle).
Moving past the static cultural exhibits, we entered into a display filled with interactive science exhibits for children. There was a box where kids could dig up fossils (upper-left), trace out dinosaur footprints (left-middle) and watch immersive films of what the prehistoric world was like (left-bottom and right).
Walking further brought us to a fanciful simulated undersea excursion. This area was filled with crude childlike florescent drawings of sea animals. I wasn’t really sure what the point of this specific display was, other than to possibly give a curious corridor of young art.
DINOSAURS! Yep, this was the exhibit we actually enjoyed the most, and returns to the area in which the opening video above was shot. This is a traveling exhibit that will only be at the Bishop Museum until January 23rd 2022, so be sure to go soon if you want to see all these animatronic creations. This exhibit explores the life and death of dinosaurs, and shows the impact of the asteroid that resulted in the massive extinction. As a kid, I memorized every detail of every dinosaur and was obsessed.
There were six main animatronic dinosaurs in the display, plus a few interactive models that children could climb through (such as the child in the mouth of the T-Rex lower-right). Each model was accompanied by educational plaques that were written in a style likely to engage the younger visitors (middle).
As you prepare to leave the science exhibits, a simulated volcano spews lava (actually hot water), giving a view of what a live volcano caldera looks like.