Wednesday, August 26, 2009

A Heart Icon is Gone


Sad. Call it the largest broken heart ever. The old walk-through heart at the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago is gone:
The old, walk-through heart -- an iconic object that looms vividly in the memories of generations of museum visitors -- is gone.

Built of plaster around a building-support pillar, it could not be dismantled intact. It had to be broken into pieces, Ward said. Several families of workers who built the old heart got pieces as mementos, she said.

"It was very popular for many decades," Ward said, "but it was static, and we have so many new technologies now to make something like that come alive."
The heart, with its cheesy "lub dub" heart sounds and carvernous interior certainly made an impression on this fourth grader the first time he saw it.

-Wes

PS: The old heart's replacement.

4 comments:

  1. There's still one in Philly: http://www2.fi.edu/exhibits/permanent/giant-heart.php

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  2. Before it was dismantled (but in bad form), it would have been fun to pop a few (huge) stents into it as a demo...Maybe a bypass graft if warranted ;)

    Marco

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  3. I saw it in 4th grade too. Pretty awesome at that time. I returned with my kids and had a walk through but it's never the same as an adult.

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  4. I went there once as a lad and was impressed by the Unterseeboot.

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