Last week, the Pacific Science Center in Seattle closed the doors on its special exhibit, “Lucy’s Legacy: the Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia,” amid disappointment. The exhibit drew only 100,000 visitors over six months, halving projections. Even its comparatively more successful showing at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (210,000+ visitors) is fairly disappointing, considering the vital importance of the exhibit and its centerpiece, the skeleton of “Lucy,” the first discovered specimen of Australopithecus afarensis, a primitive species of hominid dating back several millions of years. Lucy’s discovery singlehandedly revolutionized the study of human origins, building new branches on the evolutionary tree while redefining man’s relationship with the world. In short, Lucy is one of those things you don’t miss a chance to see.
While this speaks poorly for American science literacy, the worst is yet to come: by comparison, Ken Ham’s creationism “museum” tallied 560,000+ visitors over 18 months (pdf), packing in 100,000 in its first two months. Apparently, more than half a million Americans will gladly trek to Cincinatti to see Adam & Eve dolls ride animatronic dinosaurs – but barely half as many can be coaxed to a major metropolis to see one of the greatest discoveries in human history.
Call me a pessimist, but it’s hard not to take this as a stinging rebuke of the effectiveness of the free marketplace of ideas. The plastinated lies of a deranged Australian huckster should never outsell real, compelling science – especially not in a nation that remains the world’s scientific powerhouse. Maybe Lucy needs a better agent… or maybe we just need to keep people like Don McLeroy out of the classroom:
Apparently, more than half a million Americans will gladly trek to Cincinatti to see Adam & Eve dolls ride animatronic dinosaurs…
*Ahem* It’s actually in KY….a point of embarrassment for some of us who live here.
Luckily the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal , located just across the river, gets about 1.5 million visitors per year and their natural history museum gets the facts right. Hopefully this is combatting the dark forces at the Creation Museum.
Just as an FYI – I’ve been the to CMC several times and it is fan-tastic. If you’re ever in Cincinnati, check it out. It’s worth seeing for the architecture alone. A real art deco masterpiece.
Posted by Mike | March 17, 2009, 8:21 amI wouldn’t dispair – there are dozens of “evolution” museums and only one “creation”museum. Comparing the one to one of many isn’t terribly accurate.
Posted by Chris Gerrib | March 17, 2009, 8:46 amfret not … remember how much mel gibson’s the passion of the christ made? … $371 million in the u.s.
and how does a movie (or any movie) make so much money? repeat viewing. sure there might be an initial blip from attendance by the purely curious, but continued earnings are based on second, third, fourth … etc. viewing.
(that is why summer blockbusters are geared towards adolescent males … they will see spider man six times. hence, spider man stays in the top 10 for several weeks.)
now take the devotion of a 13-year-old boy to comic-book superheroes, increase it by an order of magnitude, drop it in the bible belt, and you have an audience rabidly hungry for rides where they can ride dinosaurs next to jesus.
i didn’t read your links, so do you know if these visitor counts are one-timers, or are they simply based on gross receipts?
Posted by didionsmommy | March 17, 2009, 9:35 amI second Chris Gerrib’s comment. And yeah, things like this probably need better publicity. The creationism museum is known nationwide by the faithful, but I certainly wasn’t aware that Lucy was making a tour. The other thing is that I wouldn’t have planned a special trip requiring a plane just to see that exhibit. It’s important and would have been interesting, but there always all kinds of special traveling or temporary exhibits, and I’ll probably just go to the ones that happen to be where I am – I can’t see them all. Also, to see a special exhibit (since they often aren’t included in regular admission) can cost between $20 and $30.
Posted by Kris | March 17, 2009, 10:14 amWhen Lucy was in Houston, I was interested to note that the controversy was over the agreements with Ethiopia over the fossils, not evolution. I didn’t see lots of advertising in the churches, but there were school trips that I heard about to see her. The exhibit focussed on the Ethiopian culture and history, their links to Christianity, then the second part the evolutionary record and Lucy. Bring them in, lull them into a sense of false security, then hit them with the truth…
There is still hope, even with our idiotic school board.
Posted by Erika | March 17, 2009, 10:37 amI know people who’ve gone to the Creation Museum not because they believe it, but for the same reason people go to the freakshow at the circus or the state fair (and I’ve known people to do that too… I was too sick from eating deep-fried twinkies and riding on the spin-and-barf to join them.) Personally, I won’t do that because of giving financial support to something I object to (it’s like people who buy books in order to hold a book burning – morons, if you ask me. Steal the books if you’re going to burn them.), but I’ve got to wonder how much of the attendance at Ham’s was due to people who didn’t agree with it at all but wanted to enjoy some shits and giggles.
Posted by Steve | March 17, 2009, 10:46 amI would also note that Northern Kentucky is a lot more centrally located that Seattle. A lot more people can get to No. KY easily than Seattle.
Posted by Mike | March 17, 2009, 11:39 amThe creation museum is a blight on the face of this nation’s landscape. Though it does give me hope that someday Ken Ham might die crushed by an animatronic dinosaur wearing a saddle.
Posted by EternalCritic | March 17, 2009, 12:37 pmI’m not too worried about it, and here’s why.
A single McDonald’s location sells more food (and likely makes more profit) in a single year than Wolfgang Pucks’s Spago.
So the Creation Museum is the McDonald’s hamburger of the science world. Kudos to them.
The Lucy exhibit was aiming for an intelligent audience; it sought ponderous, contemplative and somewhat learned folk who understand what science is and its role in the world.
The Creation Museum is after people who don’t care too much to think for themselves and would rather have their knowledge spoon-fed to them in an ego-pleasing manner. This, sadly, represents a larger portion of the population than my previously mentioned segment.
But there is no doubt about which one represents real science.
Posted by Donovan | March 17, 2009, 12:48 pm