Harry Potter Exhibition at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Introduction

During the summer of 2009 Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry played host to a fantastic Harry Potter Exhibition. The exhibit focused on the artifacts, costumes and other elements from the films. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and so are my Sister and her young kids. I was lucky enough to have them visiting me here in Chicago so we all went to see the Harry Potter exhibition together. For those of you who didn't get to see the Harry Potter exhibit I am pleased to give you a guided tour right here and now. I will walk you through all of the high points and you don't even have to leave your chair. Aren't I generous?

The Museum Exterior

As you can see, the front of the museum was totally pimped out with huge banners featuring everyone's favorite owl Hedwig. My posse and I got totally excited to see this and I think the museum did a great job to set the tone. Going to this show brought back memories of a similar exhibit about Star Wars movie props I saw in the 80's in Cincinnati. They had huge banners of Star Wars characters at that old exhibit. I wrote about that in my Star Wars article. I just love when museums have movie related exhibits with things I can geek out over like Harry Potter!

The actual Harry Potter exhibit was housed outside the museum building under a huge network of white tents.

You can see it in these pictures attached to the museum like a big ol' parasite. I guess one of the reasons they did this is that some of the items in the exhibit were quite huge and maybe the museum didn't have room inside.

Inside the museum lobby there were more looming Harry Potter posters and banners everywhere. In the main entry area they had a few big items on display for everyone entering the museum to enjoy. I'm sure this also served as a nice teaser to entice casual museum visitors to fork up the dough for the whole Harry Potter exhibit.

There was a few life-sized statues from the first film's huge Wizard Chess Set including this fearsome looking knight chess piece.

In addition to the main Harry Potter exhibition the Museum of Science and industry was also showing the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Pure Blood Prince, in it's Imax theater. For those of you who may not know an Imax theater has a large domed screen that the film is projected on to. It's so big that it fills your entire visual range (sometimes with 3D glasses) and has sound coming at you from all directions. It's a very immersive experience. However, we had all already seen the movie.

The Flying Car

By far the best of the lobby's teaser displays was the flying Ford Anglia from the Chamber of Secrets. It was a great thing to see close-up like this and was a perfect photo opp for visitors. We had to wait for tons of people to finish posing in front of the thing just for us to get a closer look. Silly muggles!

Move over I'm driving!

The surface quality and texture looked weathered and antiqued just as it was in the movie. The sign in front gave a little more of the history about the car's role in the second film. It also said that it was from the Ford Motor Company collection. So I'm not sure if this was actually one of the cars used in the film or not, but clearly it was an exact replica.

One thing's for sure, the magic must have worn off because it just kinda sat there. We all were waiting for it to just take off on it's own and fly crashing through the roof.

Entering the Exhibit

We had bought our tickets online so after posing in front of the flying car ourselves we headed straight to the entrance of the Harry Potter exhibition. Walking around in the lobby and halls were museum staff wearing Harry Potter robes. This was a nice touch in itself but they even went a step further. When we asked one of them where we should go she replied in what was a believable but clearly forced British accent. They all were using this accent and when they spoke they did so very loud so everyone could hear the accent. I found this a little unnerving at first. I'm not sure why, I guess when adults put on a fake persona I'm not sure how to respond to that. Were we supposed to answer them with a British accent too? It reminded me of guests to a Renaissance fair inclined to converse in the tongue of a 16th century native. "Whither be the privies, you scurvy naive?"

Once we arrived at the entrance we saw that there were many rules most of which were designed to move people through the exhibit. Let me elaborate on that a wee bit.

As you can see in this picture, outside the door was a big clock. The Harry Potter exhibition wasn't like a normal museum show where you can come in at anytime and stroll where ever. This exhibit was very time specific and you couldn't enter in until your time slot arrived. This means you were also screwed if you were late.

Luckily we got there early so we got to experience the pre-show. This consisted of a museum staffer yelling out (in a forced British accent) Harry Potter trivia to the waiting crowd of visitors. Some of the questions were easy, like what was the name Hagrid gave to his pet dragon? Do you remember? Some of the other questions were more esoteric. When this quiz show started not many people responded. But eventually people really got into it. It was a nice idea to keep people occupied and got us even more in a Harry Potter mood. Oh and the pet dragon was named Norbert.

Also, while we waited they tried to sell us on the audio tour. I think they were five bucks a pop so we didn't see the need. (Yea I know I'm cheap, "wanna fight about it?")

As the clock ticked down to our scheduled showtime the museum staffer that gave the quiz show informed us (in a forced British accent) that the doors were magically sealed and the only way we could all get in was to use the spell for opening doors. Do you remember the spell? We were all told to hold up our (imaginary) wands and say the incantation "Alohomora!"

The Sorting Hat

Magically the doors opened and we were led into the tent walkway (parasite) leading to the big event. Inside the tent it smelled like fresh pine lumber and paint. I guess because they had to build a lot of it on-site. The first room we arrived in contained a wooden stage with one stool upon which sat no other than the actual Hogwart's Sorting Hat!

The museum staffer who led us there asked (in a forced British accent) for a few kid volunteers from the crowd. When the kids sat on the stool and the hat was placed over their head a voice was heard saying "Hmm, this one's brave...better be Gryffendor!" Everyone clapped and the kid would smile ear to ear. All the kids that went up were placed in Gryffendor. Then an adult volunteer was requested. This time the voice said "Ah this one's cunning and crafty...better be Slytherin!" Yep, it was awesome.

Then a door opened and we went into a room with a huge projector screen that showed clips from the films while the Harry Potter music played. Again this was a great mood setting feature. I particularly loved this montage of clips because it showed how the three main actors have grown up over the course of making the movies. They were just babies when the movies started. It seems like just yesterday though. Sniff sniff, they grow up so fast. "Sun rise, sun set..."

The short intro film ended with scenes of the Hogwart's Express train. But once the short film stopped the screen peeled back revealing an actual life-sized Hogwart's Express! What a great transition as though we were stepping into the film. It was amazing and kind of surreal. The train engine itself was beautiful and there was even mist pumped in to add to the atmosphere. Way to wow us from the first moment Harry Potter exhibition!

This is just the beginning and there's still two parts left in this epic guided tour...

Continue to Harry Potter Exhibition Part 2