Bucks
Galileo Exhibit at Franklin Institute
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Last week, Mighty Betsy and I attended the opening of the Galileo Exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It was quite a party…525 guests including Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
It was exactly 400 years ago that Galileo built a simple telescope with two lenses inside a three-foot long tube made of wood and wrapped in paper. What he saw changed the world. Galileo confirmed [Nicholas] Copernicus’ and [Johannes] Kepler’s theory that the sun did not revolve the earth as the Catholic Church taught in the 1500’s but the other way around. Although he was not burned at the stake as the philosopher and teacher Giordano Bruno was, the church placed Galileo under house arrest for the remainder of his life.
Our friend, Dennis Wint is the President of the Franklin Institute. He expects more than 100,000 visitors before the Galileo Exhibit closes on September 7.
2009 marks the celebration of the
International Year of Astronomy. As you can imagine, the most important museums
in the world were vying for the Galileo telescope that had never left its home
at the Museum of the History of Science in
Why did the Franklin Institute win the prize?
“When Wint met in Florence with [Paolo] Galluzzi (the Florence Museum Director) in 2007, he was coming off the Franklin’s hugely successful leg of the traveling “King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit, which drew 1.37 million visitors,” the Philadelphia Inquirer explained (April 2).
“Galluzzi and his museum wanted to be a presenter, not just a lender,” the article continued. “Three Italian curators have overseen the protection, movement, and placement of the telescope and other instruments that belonged to Galileo, as well as paintings of Medicis, print, manuscripts, and their hands-on virtual counterparts.
“Even before advancing to the exhibition’s interactive playpen of optics, which might assuage those pining to press an eye to Galileo’s untouchable 400-yer-old lens, visitors will notice light glinting off brass tools, whose crisp inscriptions and hash marks belie their ages and utility.”
As many of you know, science is not my long suit. But I was absolutely fascinated by the exhibit. But what intrigued me more was that Galileo attracted the powerful Medici family to finance his exploration and the Church’s angry response.
It was Galileo who opened the heavens to science and ultimately led to his arrest for heresy. He provoked church authorities by stating that people should look to the Bible to tell them how to go to heaven but not to tell them how the heavens go, the Inquirer opined.
Galileo wrote his findings in the Italian language, rather than in Latin (the Church and science language), which made his discovery more understandable to ordinary people…and therefore a threat to the authority of the Church. “He created a rousing dialogue among three characters,” the Inquirer continued. “There was a (1) wise judge, (2) a character representing Galileo, and (3) another he dubbed “Simplicio,” implying that a simpleton was arguing the church’s position.”
You can imagine the Church’s response!
Isn’t it amazing that 400 years after Galileo, religion is still at war with science? Some clerics believe that evolution should not be taught in public schools. During the last eight years, the Bush Administration was quick to elevate conservative religious thinking above scientific evidence. Teaching “abstinence only” to teenagers is an example of its wrong-headed thinking. And it wasted millions of taxpayer’s money.
But I stray.
I found an interesting promotion piece at the Franklin Institute. For $15 you can purchase the Galileoscope, a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit. It’s a 50-mm f/10 refractor that snaps together in less than five minutes and gives great views of the celestial wonders. For more info, go to www.galileoscope.org.
Last, Dennis Wint is the Franklin
Institute’s remarkable leader. He’s been at the helm of the Franklin Institute
since 1995, although he’s served the museum community for more than 35 years.
Earlier in his career, he was the Vice President of Philadelphia’s
Wint is the key force behind the tremendous growth that the 185-year old museum is experiencing. Under his leadership, the Franklin Institute has doubled its attendance in the last five years. Art Newspaper recently named the Franklin Institute as number one in the world for highest attendance of a temporary exhibit in 2007.
You don’t want to miss this
exhibit. The Franklin Institute is located at
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith