We visited the Museum of World Treasures before when we found ourselves in Wichita, KS back in January 2019. We were so impressed with it I decided to come back to offer it as a virtual field trip for my students when we were in Wichita for 3 weeks in June 2020.
Here’s only a small smattering of what you can see! I took 799 photos and 30 minutes of video in the 2 hours I was there and I still didn’t even get close to seeing or capturing it all. *Mind Blown!* It’s well worth a visit when you’re in Wichita, KS. As a side note – the museum did an amazing job of enforcing social distancing protocols.
You move through time as you move through the museum. You start with the dinosaurs and a geologic record of Kansas.
After exiting the geology exhibit you go into the exhibits of ancient Asia, Africa and South America.
Two of my learners’ favorite items on display were from South America – a trophy head and a shrunken head. You can see photos of them below after photos containing descriptions of each of those exhibits, so be careful when scrolling if you’re squeamish and so don’t want to see them.
Ancient Egypt is next and there are two mummies on display. I shared a few cool and creepy pictures with my learners, including two pictures of the mummies and their coffins covered in hieroglyphics.
There’s a display of coins from the Roman Empire as well as artifacts from Ancient Greece and Rome. There’s information above the coins about each emperor of Rome although some coins were out of the display for ongoing research.
Once you’ve finished seeing these ancient civilizations you go upstairs to see more about Medieval Europe, the founding of America, the Presidents and then move through the history of modern warfare from the Civil War through Vietnam.
The Museum of World Treasures is full of fun facts throughout. They were some of my favorite things to read.
It’s 1607, time to learn about Jamestown and the Colonial times before America’s independence.
The museum flows into the American Revolution and the founding of the US. There’s two replica uniforms on display that are from the movie “The Patriot.”
There’s a “Hall of Presidents” next and it includes historical information, a timeline of important dates for the president and a document from their presidency. One of my favorite things from when we visited last time was a hands-on display that shares caricatures of some of the presidents and cool facts about them, but they were off limits this time because of COVID-19.
The Civil War exhibit is large and has a ton of artifacts (real and replicas) to see, as well as information about what life was like for soldiers.
I really love how the Museum of World Treasures shows items from history and ties it in to Kansas’ history when possible, like the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry from the Civil War.
Next we explored World War I and World War II. As I mentioned earlier, there are also displays for the Korean and Vietnam Wars, but I ran out of time to see it all.
World War I
World War II
What I found really interesting is how much coverage of the war in Asia was covered. Often we hear so much about what happened in Europe because of the evil actions of Hitler with the holocaust, but Asia had a holocaust of its own and there are two displays showing the timelines of the war in Europe and the war in Asia.
As I said before, there’s so much in this museum that you can’t even see it all in two hours (and I was flying through). This is a really well done museum and I highly recommend stopping by to see Stan and the team if you’re in (or passing through) Wichita, KS.
Ticket Prices
The Museum of World Treasures is not only interesting, but it’s great value for the money too. At the time of visiting in June 2020, tickets cost the following:
- Adults – $9.95
- Seniors (65+) – $8.95
- Children ages 4-12 – $7.95
- Children ages 3 & under – Free
Address
Museum of World Treasures, 835 E 1st St N, Wichita, KS 67202
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