Durham Museum: Mummies and trains

This weekend the family visited the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. We heard that it had an exhibit on Ancient Egypt and since my 11 year old has been interested in Ancient Egypt for years, it looked like a fun way to escape the heat while still leaving the house.

The museum is located in Omaha's 1931 Union Station, which is according to my History Here App, "one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the country."

It was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood who also designed for the National Park Service.

There are sculptures of train riders of the 1940s scattered in the great open hall on the first floor.

On our way to the temporary exhibit on Ancient Egypt and the methods that archaeologists use to study Egypt, we moved through a train exhibit that not only had old cars that the kids could climb in but also small scale exhibits for the kids to learn how a steam train worked.

One of the great parts of this museum are all the hands on exhibits and that continues through the Egypt exhibit.

We were not able to take pictures beyond this fabulous photo op on a camel but the exhibit was educational for us adults and fun for all of the kids.

There were many hands on stations where the kids learned how archaeologists sift through bones, pottery and other artifacts and as they put together the pieces of the pottery, they put together the story of a civilization and daily lives of individuals.

At the end of the exhibit, there was a play area where kids could color Egyptian themed coloring sheets, play with Play-mobile versions of the Sphinx, and sculpt with sand.

If you are in the Omaha area between now and September 6th, I highly recommend planing on a couple hours at this exhibit.

We ended our time by stopping at the old fashion soda fountain for lunch. mmmm...