Oak Ridge Children's Museum

The Oak Ridge Children's Museum is located in an old elementary school built in 1943 when the city was "secret"and heavily guarded due to the Manhattan Project. In addition to the rapid building of labs and houses needed for the project, scientists and other government employees would bring their families and public facilities such as schools and shops were needed to assure that employees never needed to leave the city.

The elementary school was converted into a museum in 1970 by the girl scouts and was intended to be a hand-on experience for children. Over the years it has made attempts to become a more intergenerational museum to appeal to more visitors. It was difficult to find and I do not remember seeing any signs from the road pointing in the right direction so unless one knows it is there I doubt anyone would find it. If the museum really wants to attract visitors they should reconsider their advertising.

The museum's collection is comprised of around 20,000 artifacts entirely donated to the museum. Oak Ridge is a very internationally diverse city, as evident from the first exhibits of objects from China, Japan, Africa, and even a stuffed polar bear from Alaska. It then jumps to local artifacts such as several log cabins and even a moonshine distillery stuffed in a corner. The following rooms have titles such as "Grandma's Attic" and feature historical objects that, like the name suggests would be commonplace in a grandmother's attic. While this is a Children's Museum, there really was not much text to read about the artifacts, except for the occasional sheet of copier paper taped to the wall, so you have to take their word for it that the objects in "Knoxville in the 1910's: City and Country Life" are what they claim to be.

The "Oak Ridge Corridor: Difficult Decisions", was the opposite of the previous rooms as it was very text heavy and I cannot imagine any child or adult who would take the time to read all of it. Placing the panels in little niches was a good idea as it allowed visitors to read the text yet did not slow the move of traffic. I especially liked the radio that played the famous speech by President Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a nice touch as well as the pictures on the panels.

My favorite part of the museum was the exhibition of Ed Westcott photos taken during the Manhattan project when Oak Ridge was a secret city. The addition of furniture, banners, and other souvenirs from the era added a touch of realism to the photos that may otherwise be more unaccessible. It is easy to forget that every day, mundane activities, such as dating, dances, and school was also a part of such a top secret project. While this is true, the room housing the cemesto made the exhibition space a little awkward to move around, especially with a tour group and I felt like I was in the way the entire time. It was a good idea to group the photos by category as it would have been difficult to shift through all of those images in they were in a chronological order, for example. I especially like the photo of the Santa being searched by security guards and the photo of Senator John F. Kennedy visiting the facility. It was especially interesting to learn that Westcott was only 19 when he started taking his photographs. My boyfriend is a Physics and Math double major so it was interesting for him to learn about the people who dedicated years of their lives to such significant, albeit deadly project.

The rest of the museum contained exhibits related to the interests of children such as "The Dollhouse" and "A Century of Toys." I know I would have loved to explore the dollhouse when I was younger and as a permanent exhibit it will undoubtably thrill children for years to come. The toy exhibit was interesting to people of all age groups as everyone could find something that they had fond memories of as a child. I was pleased to see the 1990's well represented with beanie babies, Polly Pocket, and even the first Harry Potter book! While the exhibit space was made to look like a toy shop complete with a beautiful doll mansion, it was extremely awkward to manuever around in. Outside the exhibit in the main hall were more dolls in glass cases and I especially liked the doll dressed like a Japanese shogun. I used to collect porcelein dolls so I was glad to see that others treasured them as well.

There is a room for just about any interest that a child could have. Art rooms, a puppet theatre, a waterway, which is a replica of one in the Hands-On Museum in Johnson City that I remember playing with, a train room and garden, even a replica of a rainforest. Hopefully the new garden will become a reality as it is the only thing that the museum is missing. Some of the rooms had a bleachy smell that made me feel slightly sick but maybe it was just me. All in all, it was an interesting visit as I doubt I will go to a children's museum until I have kids of my own.