The most recognizable part of the Franklin Institute's Science Center is the
Franklin Institute Science Museum. In the spirit of inquiry and discovery embodied by Benjamin Franklin, the mission of the Franklin Institute Science Museum serves to inspire an understanding of and passion for science and technology learning. Among other exhibits, the Science Museum holds the largest collection of artifacts from the
Wright brothers' workshop.
Permanent exhibits in the Amazing Machine •
Electricity, which replaced ''Franklin...He's Electric'' in 2010, showcases Franklin's discovery of electricity and its use in the modern world, including elements such as a sustainable dance floor, and an array of LEDs that turn on in the presence of cell phone signals and other low-power electrical signals. (Electricity and Technology) •
Changing Earth, which opened to the public, along with
Electricity, on March 27, 2010, focuses on the powerful forces of air, water, and land and their effect upon the earth, as well as how humans respond to and interact with these forces. •
The Franklin Airshow features The
Wright Brothers Aeronautical Engineering Collection, their newly restored
Wright Model B airplane, and a
United States Air Force 1948
T-33 Shooting Star jet trainer. (Aviation and Technology) •
The Giant Heart has been a Philadelphia icon since its opening in 1954. (Biology, Chemistry and Anatomy) •
Joel N. Bloom Observatory, remodeled in 2006, features five telescopes, including a very large Zeiss Refractor and four Meade Reflectors. •
SportsZone is an interactive exhibit that shows the science behind sports. (Physics and Technology) •
The Train Factory has a real, once movable train: The
Baldwin 60000 steam locomotive, which was rolled into the museum while the building's walls were still being constructed. The 60000's track is itself the top level of a full-size exhibit on bridge engineering in the museum basement and long closed to the public. Along with 60000, the Institute has two other steam locomotives, both from the early 19th century. This exhibit is currently closed for an extensive renovation and is expected to reopen in the fall of 2024. (History, Engineering, and Technology) • ''Sir Isaac's Loft'' allows visitors to blend art and science into their own masterpiece. (Physics and Art) •
Space Command features real space suits and allows visitors to track their houses, in real time, via satellite. (Astronomy, Technology, and Mathematics) • The Franklin Institute installed
Foxtrot Papa, a former British Airways
Boeing 707 airliner, as a permanent exhibit in the mid-1970s. Standing above an outdoor Science Park and connected to the second-floor aviation hall by skybridges, this aircraft could easily be seen from the outside of the building and was a remarkable sight in the middle of a major city. In the 1980s, however, the aircraft was sold for scrap, much to the dismay of local aviation enthusiasts. •
Amazing Machine allows visitors to experience a machine-like environment featuring little-seen pieces from the Franklin Institute's priceless collection, including
Maillardet's automaton. •
Your Brain explores the physiology and neurology of our most remarkable organ. The exhibit includes an 18-foot-tall
Luckey Climber climbing structure that simulates neural pathways sending messages, and an area to discuss questions of neuroscience ethics, in addition to 70 interactive learning experiences.
Other attractions in front of the museum The Science Center includes many pertinent attractions that are not museum exhibits. The
Budd BB-1 Pioneer flying boat, in front of the museum, was the world's first stainless steel airplane, built by Philadelphia-based
Edward F. Budd Manufacturing Corporation, and has been on display since 1935. A mock-up which would eventually become the Lunar Module in the Apollo space program, first shown on display in the 1966–67 World's Fair, held in the New York Hall of Science, is also located on the grounds. (See
photo.)
Theaters In 1933,
Samuel Simeon Fels contributed funds to build
The Fels Planetarium, only the second built in the United States after
Chicago's
Adler Planetarium. Fully reconstructed in 2002, the Planetarium's new design includes replacement of the original 40,000-pound stainless steel dome, originally built in 1933. The new premium dome is lighter and is in diameter. It is the first of its kind in the United States. The planetarium is also outfitted for visitors who are hearing impaired.
The Tuttleman IMAX Theater was an
IMAX dome theater that was 180° encompassing and tilted at 30 degrees. The seating placed the audience up in a dome over across and 4.5 stories tall. The theater had 20,000 watts of amplifier power and over 50 speakers. It was closed in 2020 due to
COVID-19, and did not reopen with the rest of the museum. In 2023, the Franklin Institute confirmed that the theater would remain closed permanently, citing that it was financially unviable and had outdated equipment, and that the museum would be investing in other new exhibits instead. Early in 2008, extensive renovation of the museum's auditorium was completed. Previously a lecture hall, the space was renamed
Franklin Theater, and features 3-D and hi-def
Blu-ray digital projection capabilities. The Franklin Theater shows educational films during daytime hours while also including mass release feature-length films.
Traveling exhibits 's face. In the past, the Science Center has hosted many traveling exhibits including
Storms,
Titanic,
Grossology,
Body Worlds,
Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out,
Darwin, and
Robots. In the summer of 2007, the Franklin Institute hosted
Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs, in the Mandell Center of the Franklin Institute Science Museum. The exhibit began its United States Tour in
Los Angeles, and went to
Fort Lauderdale, and
Chicago, before coming to Philadelphia for its final American appearance. When the exhibit left Philadelphia on September 30, 2007, it traveled to
London. This exhibit was nearly twice the size of the original
Tutankhamun exhibit of the 1970s, and contained 50 objects directly from Tut's tomb, as well as nearly 70 object from the tombs of his ancestors in The
Valley of the Kings. The show also featured a
CAT Scan that revealed what the Boy King may have looked like. The Franklin Institute is a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) and the
American Alliance of Museums (AAM). The Franklin Institute is also a member of the Science Museum Exhibit Collaborative with the
Fort Worth Museum of Science & History; the
Museum of Science, Boston;
COSI Columbus, formerly known as the
Center of Science and Industry in
Columbus, Ohio;
OMSI in
Portland, Oregon; the
Science Museum of Minnesota in
Saint Paul, Minnesota; and the
California Science Center, formerly the California Museum of Science & Industry, in
Los Angeles. In July 2025,
Comcast NBCUniversal and
Universal Destinations & Experiences announced that an interactive experience would open at The Franklin Institute from February 14 to September 7, 2026. The exhibition spans 18,000 square feet and feature eight themed galleries, 25 interactive experiences, and over 100 original artefacts.
Benjamin Franklin National Memorial 's statue of
Benjamin Franklin The Benjamin Franklin National Memorial features a high marble statue, sculpted by
James Earle Fraser. Originally opened in 1938, the Memorial was designed by architect
John T. Windrim and modeled after the
Pantheon in
Rome. The Hall is in length, width, and height. The domed ceiling is self-supporting and weighs 1600 tons. The floors, walls, columns, pilasters, and cornices are made of marbles imported from Portugal, Italy, and France. The
United States Congress designated the Hall and statue as the official Benjamin Franklin National Memorial on October 25, 1972 (). The Memorial was dedicated by Vice President
Nelson Rockefeller in 1976. On December 30, 2005, Congress authorized the institute to receive up to $10 million in matching grants for the rehabilitation of the memorial and for the development of related exhibits. In the fall of 2008, the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial was re-opened after a summer-long restoration that included multimedia enhancements. Philadelphia's most famous citizen is featured in
Benjamin Franklin Forever, an hourly 3.5-minute multimedia presentation utilizing the entire rotunda. Also noteworthy is the Franklin Institute's Frankliniana Collection, some of which is on rotating display in the Pendulum Staircase. Highlights include Franklin's 1777 Nini Medallion, the
scale model of the bust from the statue in the Memorial, the
figurehead of Franklin's bust from the
frigate , his ceremonial sword used in the court of King Louis XVI, and the odometer that Franklin used to measure the postal routes in Philadelphia. Additionally, the institute's
Electricity exhibition highlights one of Franklin's lightning rods, his electricity tube, a
Franklin Electrostatic Generator, the 1751 publication of Franklin's
Experiments and Observations on Electricity, and
Thornton Oakley's two 1940 historical murals of Franklin and the
"Kite and Key" experiment.
The Journal of The Franklin Institute In 1826,
The Journal of The Franklin Institute was established to publish
US Patent information and to document scientific and technological achievements throughout the nation. It is the second oldest continuously published
scientific journal in the country, and is now primarily devoted to
engineering and
applied mathematics.
Awards Since 1824, the Franklin Institute has maintained the longest continuously awarded science and technology awards program in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. The first issue of the
Journal of The Franklin Institute, dated January 1826, makes the first written reference to these awards. Before 1998 several medals were awarded by the Franklin Institute, such as (year indicates when the award was first presented): the
Elliott Cresson Medal (1875), the Edward Longstreth Medal (1890), the
Howard N. Potts Medal (1911), the
Franklin Medal (1915), the
George R. Henderson Medal (1924), the Louis E. Levy Medal (1924), the
John Price Wetherill Medal (1926), The
Frank P. Brown Medal (first awarded in 1941),
Stuart Ballantine Medal (1947), and the
Albert A. Michelson Medal (1968). Past winners include
Henry Ford,
Frank Lloyd Wright,
Marie Curie, and
Thomas Edison. In 1998 all of the endowed medals were reorganized as the
Benjamin Franklin Medals. Multiple medals are given every year, for different fields of science and engineering. The fields awarded today are "
Chemistry", "
Computer and
Cognitive Science", "
Earth and
Environmental Science", "
Electrical Engineering", "
Life Science", "
Mechanical Engineering" and "
Physics". In the past also the fields "
Earth Science", "
Engineering" and "
Materials Science" were rewarded. Additionally since 1990, the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science (Bower Science Award) and the Bower Award for Business Leadership have been awarded annually. They are funded by a $7.5 million
bequest in 1988 from Henry Bower, a chemical manufacturer in Philadelphia. The Bower Science Award contains $250,000 of cash, one of the largest amounts for a science award in the US. In 2021, the Benjamin Franklin NextGen Award was added to the list of Franklin Institute Awards. The institute's Committee on Science and the Arts determines the winners of these awards. Recipients and related information can be found in the laureates database. ==Informal science learning research==