IT'S ELEMENTARY: Yesterday we headed to the Pacific Science Center to see the ending-soon "International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes."
We bought our tickets, headed over to the area of the exhibit, and turned back around, in search of a refund. There was an hour-long line outside, in the (literally) freezing cold. We weren't expecting or dressed for that, so it was a no go.
What a difference a day makes. Many, MANY people had yesterday off due to New Year's Day falling on a Sunday, and apparently they all went to Pacific Science Center. Today ... crickets! We practically had the place to ourselves. Hooray!
The first part of the exhibit was about the author of the series. It featured some original ink-on-paper penned pages from early Sherlock Holmes mysteries written by Conan Doyle.
When we entered the exhibit, we were given mystery 'passports' of sorts. There were tasks to complete along the way, all of which (if you completed them properly) helped you solve a mystery.
Following is Annabelle's review ...
Sherlock Holmes is having part of it’s international exhibition at the Pacific Science Center. The exhibit is about how Conan Doyle’s stories affected science and culture. The main part of the exhibit was meant to feel like Victorian London, which they achieved by making the exhibit pretty dark. It was very interactive, with a huge display for the “crime scene”. They had stations where you made a rubbing of a plant found at the scene, a stamp so you can compare the blood splatter to the type of wound it would have come from, and a cool contraption with rotating “shoe wheels” to see what the tracks leading away from the scene would have been caused by. It’s fun to try and figure out what’s wrong with the police’s report and what they actually got right (and, as in any good detective story, the police are usually wrong). It’s pretty fun to figure out what really happened, and it makes you feel like part of the story. It can be pretty dark (as in the plot, not the surroundings), so I wouldn’t recommend it to young kids, but it’s still fun. I would recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries or is a big fan of Sherlock, because there are some easter eggs for fans of the originals, such as a character’s hat from one of his stories. It’s a great exhibit and I’m excited to see what Pacific Science Center has in store next.
And here's what CJ had to say ...
My family very frequently visits the Pacific Science Center, a scientific museum close to our house. Today, we visited PacSci (a common nickname for the Science Center) for their current exhibit, The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes. In case you do not know, Sherlock Holmes is a character created in 1886 by Arthur Conan Doyle, an author and physician from Scotland. Conan Doyle was growing tired of clichéd crime stories found in "penny dreadfuls" and such, which were often cheaply produced and purchased, but usually extremely predictable and often following a formula. If I remember correctly, when Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes for his stories, he wanted to make something more original (for example: Having cases be different than what they first seem to be, having the criminal do something seemingly impossible, etc). Sherlock Holmes, in Conan Doyle's stories, is a private detective with an uncanny ability to infer several details about someone's past. What Conan didn't know is that over a century later, Sherlock Holmes would be, as the exhibit's website puts it, one of the most inspiring and influential characters of all time. At the exhibit, visitors go through a newly-made "case" where they must help Sherlock Holmes solve a case involving, among other things, a seedpod, a shattered bust of Napoleon, and a man who supposedly murdered his wife and daughter.
More specifically, a man from Richmond named "Mr. Persano", after inhaling poisonous fumes from a burning seedpod, allegedly murdered his family and proceeded to try and bury them at the river near his house. While the police department is reaching their presumptive conclusion, you have to help Sherlock Holmes get a better look into the scene, and from there, reach an informed conclusion.
For example, you can go to a nearby (fake, of course) slaughterhouse to get a look at various types of blood stains. You must determine which stain matches the spatter present at the crime scene. Afterwards, you can get a rubbing of a seedpod present at the scene, and try and match it up with seeds from other poisonous plants at a nearby garden. There is an odd track in the sand from Mr. Persano's house to the river, which the police determine to be his tracks from allegedly dragging corpses in the sand to the river. Strangely, Sherlock built a "stepping machine" composed of a wheel with several shoes attached to it, so you can make a track in the sand similar to the track in the sand at Mr. Persano's house. At the end of the museum, you discover that Mr. Persano actually did not kill his wife and daughter, and broke open the Napoleon bust at the scene using a garden tool. If I remember correctly, Persano was trying to get a badge inside the bust to prove something, and he sent his family to hide in the shed nearby, creating the tracks in the sand. As it turns out, the police's conclusion is incorrect. SOURCES: http://sherlockholmesexhibition.com/
Below is a link to a podcast all about the exhibition.
While at Seattle Center, I had to take some photos of the Space Needle, of course.
It's hard to remember sometimes that Sherlock Holmes is a purely fictional character.
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