The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest and premier centers of science education and development in the United States. The Institute itself comprises three centers - The Science Center, The Franklin Center, and The Center for Innovation in Science Learning. It also house the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Exhibits at The Franklin Institute include "Electricity", "The Franklin Air Show, "The Giant Heart", and "Amazing Machines". The Fels Planetarium is only one of two in the United States. The Tuttleman IMAX showcases educational films.
As one of the nation's great artistic and historic resources, the Museum houses more than 225,000 objects highlighting the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century A.D. and those of Asia since the third millennium B.C. Highlights of the Asian collections include paintings and sculpture from China, Japan, and India; furniture and decorative arts, including major collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics; a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare an authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a sixteenth-century Indian temple hall.
The city's award winning children's museum is fun filled, and totally hands on. Each nook and cranny has a different theme, from the fantastic to the practical. In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, kids can play croquet with the Queen and sip teawith the Mad Hatter; nearby, oversized propers bring Maurice Sendak's classics to life. Kids can take the wheel of a real bus and sail a boat on a mini Delaware river; in "Nature's Pond" discover animals nestled among high grass and a lily pond, or enjoy stories and nursery rhymes in "Fairytale Garden." Please Touch is also a first live theater experience for young children. Please Touch Playhouse performances are original and interactive and take place daily!
