Inside the Franklin Institute’s new permanent exhibits: Body Odyssey and the Hamilton Collections Gallery

It’s undeniably impressive that we walk around today with a little computer in our back pocket that can perform trillions of operations per second. But in terms of science and technology stirring pure awe, there’s nothing like standing before a 350-ton locomotive or climbing inside an 18-foot-high heart. Even if you are a grown-up.

Both popular Franklin Institute draws reopen to the public Saturday as the centerpieces of two separate exhibition makeovers totaling $20.5 million. The Giant Heart anchors a new 8,500-square-foot show exploring biological systems and AI health technology. The Franklin’s Baldwin 60000 hasn’t moved an inch on its tracks, but the space around it has been refashioned into the Hamilton Collections Gallery — a dramatic two-story hall that delightfully blurs the line between museum on one level and a working collections/preservation center below.

The Franklin Institute has a serious pedigree in science and technology, including periods of landing government research contracts and offering classes in mechanics and engineering, and along the way it has accumulated an important collection of artifacts. Many have been on public view before, but never on this scale, the institute says.

It is indeed a wow moment to walk into the newly renovated collections room, designed by the cultural studio of the D.C. architectural firm SmithGroup. Though dimly lit (so as not to damage certain items), the space features the enormous locomotive on one side and on the other a wall of tall display cases stacked with often-inscrutable artifacts. The sight of it all tantalizes like a well-ordered curiosity shop tended by Father Time.

Benjamin Franklin’s static electricity generator, a Jenkins Radiovisor (a television from the 1920s), phonographs, telephones, tape players, early computers — the items jostle for attention, inviting you to make connections and, in many cases, guess at what possible use that device might once have served.

Answers are nearby. Several touch screens provide the provenance and brief stories about each item.

Exhibitions in the space will change every couple of years, and this inaugural show, “200 Stories for 200 Years,” smartly weaves Philadelphia history, the march of science and technology, and the Franklin Institute’s role in both.

The exhibition also puts technology to good use. Designers dealt with the question of how to place delicate paper artifacts on display by creating virtual “flat file” viewing stations. Visitors flip through what looks like old-fashioned index cards, but a scanner picks up a code, and with each flip, large photographs of a particular item appear on a flat screen. I was especially taken with notes by the Wright brothers in their work from 1901 — scribbled on a scrap of delicately decorated wallpaper. Domesticity meets destiny.

It was heartwarming to see an old friend, Henri Maillardet’s automaton, a kind of primitive robot built around 1800. But the rosy-cheeked boy is still, encased in glass, and no longer demonstrating his startling ability to whir into action to make drawings and write out poems. A video demonstrating his talents is being added before Saturday, a Franklin spokesperson said.

One slight disappointment: the display cases are so high (13 feet) that it’s hard to see items on the top shelves.

But one artifact couldn’t hide if it tried. The enormous Baldwin locomotive is as majestic as ever. There’s a new interactive nearby that’s so much fun you don’t realize how much you’re learning. Touch the screen, drag parts of the train in place to build it, and a pop-up tells you what each part is and what it does: coal bin, boiler, firebox, and so on.

You can still climb onto the train. But one thing this renovation didn’t do is restore the locomotive’s ability to move back and forth a bit on the track. That burst of adrenaline is gone — until perhaps the next generation of Franklin Institute stewards remembers that no matter how much technology evolves, some of the biggest thrills are the simplest.

— P.D.

“Body Odyssey” — the name of the Franklin Institute’s new core exhibit on the human body — rolls off the tongue like a fine wine or a catchy song (Body-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-odyssey).

Keeping beat at the center of the $8.5 million experience is the museum’s iconic 70-year-old Giant Heart, which visitors can now synchronize with their own heartbeats through three heart-rate monitor stations (audio was previously taken from a database of heart sounds at John Hopkins University and prior to 2020, it was computer-generated).

If multiple people use the heart-rate stations at once, the system uses an amalgamation of their heartbeats to create a unique lighting and audio experience as you travel through the heart, said Jayatri Das, chief bioscientist and director of science content at the Franklin.

“We’ve updated it to add that level of personal connection that I think most of us have felt metaphorically and now we can see it brought to life,” Das said.

I was highly skeptical — walking through the Giant Heart while hearing my own heartbeat sounded way too meta for me — but I actually found it so fascinating I went through twice. New lighting outside of the heart, including red blood cell ceiling pendant lamps, makes the 18-foot-high, 28-foot-wide ticker pop, and a virtual video tour kiosk for those unable to go inside is a welcome addition.

The Giant Heart is in Exploring the Body’s Natural Balance, the first of three galleries in “Body Odyssey.” Here, visitors engage in physical and sensory challenges to learn about the body’s biological systems, from bone structure to risk tolerance. I had a great time making an absolute fool of myself at an interactive video exhibit that showed what my muscular and skeletal structures looked like in real time. Let’s just say I now know how a skeleton looks when it does jumping jacks and a dance move called the coffee grinder.

The second gallery, Technological Innovation: Prosthetics, Wearable Sensors, and AI, focuses on health care and sports. It has a futuristic vibe thanks to the blue lighting and repeating hexagonal patterns featured throughout. The highlight for me was operating a robotic surgical arm with a live-feed camera on the tip. I was eventually able to grab my intended target, but the amount of time, precision, and patience it took and the many mistakes I made reinforced that nobody should ever give me a scalpel.

The final gallery, The Link Between Mind and Body, explores the connections between mental and physical health through art, visual representations of human emotions, and interactive kiosks, where guests are asked a series of questions about their mood. Visitors receive data on how others have responded throughout the day (on Wednesday, 38% of respondents were stressed out) and they’re reminded that sharing their struggles, and being understanding of the challenges others face, can improve everyone’s mental and physical health.

“Body Odyssey” is a major upgrade from the longtime exhibit on electricity it replaced. By maintaining the Giant Heart as its centerpiece and installing a host of state-of-the-art interactives around it, the exhibit strikes a nice balance between the nostalgia so many have for the Franklin Institute of their childhood and the cutting-edge technology so many children expect from museums today.

— S.F.