Memphis Museum of Science and History

Fun way to spend day with family weather science.. or history... dinosaurs... or the stars something for everyone

Visit to the MOSH Display of Christmas Trees and the Enchanted Forest. They have a couple of spaces for Veterans parking. Senior discount for aged 60+. Had a wonderful time. It's been over 20 years since I have been here and I was amazed at the display and creativity of the trees. I took plenty of photos and videos are on my FB page (Jans ultimate Treasures) some are included here. I also enjoyed the scavenger hunt for Santa's Elves while walking through the Enchanted forest. If you haven't been in a while it is definitely worth the time. It was about an hour from the time we got tickets to tour both so it's a quick self paced tour. Also at the end you can they have photos with Santa which you pay for or the associate will take your photo for free behind the big snow globe. Y'all know which one I did. Lol!

Pink Palace Museum is much catchier sounding than MOSH. Seems like a no-brainer idea to stick with the original and unique name. Anyway, my wife and I had a nice time seeing the 3-D movie about sea turtles, then visiting the gift shop afterwards. We bought a painting and some other souvenirs. In the process, I ended up buying an annual membership.

Sadly, we were disappointed by our visit to this museum. Like others have noted the website is extremely difficult to navigate. So we had to purchase tickets at the door, which wasn't a problem since there wasn't a line. My son loves dinosaurs and was interested to see some fossils and perhaps learn something new. Unfortunately, this did not occur. There is an animatronic T-Rex and a few fossils, but very little information. The museum content is all over the place and does not flow. Some sections are well built but lack any sort of engagement opportunities while others look like they've been there since the beginning of time. Museum guides (perhaps volunteers) were in some of the galleries. However, two guides were unable to share clear details about dinosaurs and another was telling an African-American guest a Confederate Flag was not a bad thing, just a flag used for battle. I did enjoy learning about the lady that used to run and live in the museum. She did not like lots of noise in the museum. I told my son her ghost still roamed the halls telling kids to "Shhhh" from the great beyond. This was the most fun we had during our whole visit. If you're visiting from out of town and your expectations are high, this should probably be a pass.

Why do we like this museum so much? I really can't pinpoint what it is that we like so much about it but it's a hit for the entire family: 2,6, and even 13 year old. So many rocks and minerals to see. Skeletons for different animals. A huge dinosaur exhibit with fossils and even a robotic full size T. rex that roars. There's something for everyone here. For our family it was $64. Three adults (13 is adult rate) & 1 child. (2 and under free). We spent an hour just in the exhibit area. We haven't been to the other areas.

Wall Street, GameStop, and The Pink Palace, OH MY! In 1922, Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly, began building a 36,500 square foot mansion faced with pink Georgia marble. In 1922, professional investors attempted a "Bear Raid" short selling Piggly Wiggly stocks. Saunders faught back by borrowing $10,000,000 to buy the stock and drive the price up. Almost 100 yrs later in Jan 2021, a large hedge fund company thought GameStops stock was gonna fall. Melvin Capital BORROWED large #'s of shares, betting the price would drop. But a group of online traders decided to fight the Wall Street giant with a "bear squeeze" buying stock in GameStop and raising the price from $20 per share to $140. Melvin Capital was forced to spend billions buying GameStop shares. However, in 1923, Saunders lost his battle with the New York Stock Exchange. They halted the trading of Piggly Wiggly stock, giving the short seller time to buy the few outstanding shares and settle their "Bear Raid" without buying from Saunders. This left Saunders with a majority of shares that were worthless because they couldn't be traded. He declared bankruptcy, and never finished his home. In the case of GameStop the online trading houses also stopped trading GameStop making it difficult for investors to trade in their stock. So what happened to Saunder's home? The land was sold to developers. The unfinished mansion was donated to the City of Memphis, which turned it into a museum. It opened in March 1930 as the Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts. The public, though, still called it "the Pink Palace," and in 1967 the museum formally became the Memphis Pink Palace Museum.

Boring! We visited here while visiting from another state. Hardly any interactive exhibits. Half the IPads/Phones in the AI exhibit didn't work. Asked upon entry if the admission included the Pink Palace and was told yes. Then when we tried to tour the mansion the lower level was completed blocked. We were able to access the grand lobby from the 2nd level only to be told the mansion was closed for an event. Complete waste of money.I would give it no stars if possible.

I only heard about Pink Palace since my family friend told me about it and took me here back in November. We got the standard admission entry. There's the 1st floor where you can see the natural history exhibits (e.g. dinosaurs figures). There's the 2nd floor where you can learn about cultural history (e.g. Civil Wars, slavery, and history of medicine). Then, there's various exhibits in the mansion area. I enjoyed learning about the history of the Pink Palace and how the entrepreneur and founder of Piggly Wiggly, Clarence Saunders, originally designed his Pink Palace mansion home before losing his fortune. Visitors could take a walk around a replica of the Piggly Wiggly self-service grocery story. The 2nd floor of the mansion has other exhibits as well, but I enjoyed 'Clyde Parke Circus' the most in that area. You'll see a miniature display of a circus and I thought it was really cool.Overall, I learned a lot from visiting this museum.

Very nice experience. I went for a Memphis 101 event, and it specifically provided a "virtual" guided tour of Memphis history. It shared the best and worst of the history while highlighting important dates, events, neighborhoods, and attractions. Additionally, there was a museum with exhibits of dinosaurs and fossils which I really enjoyed. The staff was amazing and knowledgeable! I'll definitely go visit again!

Went to the Enchanted Forest on Dec 22, 2023. Let me preference what I am about to say with we have be doing this for 15 years. We had a bad experience. From the moment we arrived, the first person I meet asked if we had tickets, I told her I had 8 digital tickets for 11:15 and 4 tickets that were given to us by a friend that works there. She told me we might not be able to use them with our 11:15 tickets (we had 10 people) so only needed to use 2 of them. She sent me to the ticket window and said that person would let me know. I go to the window and try to explain and show my tickets, she said her supervisor would have to approve it so she goes to get the First Lady I spoke with. None of this made sense and when I tried to show the email with my transaction (tickets purchased) and time slot. We finally got approved and were ready to go in. Customer Service Training should be given to these 2 ladies.Next, due to the time slots, people were funneled in and basically created severe overcrowding.In all of our years we have never seen a need like this.When we go upstairs, the escalators (up and down) were not operating. No paper towels in men's bathroom and my niece said the majority of toilets in the ladies bathroom were not working.Not sure if it's under new management with MOSH but a very disappointing visit with several first timers from out of town. This experience embarrassed me. Someone needs to address this.