News and History of Please Touch Museum, Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park

Memorial Hall, constructed to be the Art Gallery of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition and first home to the renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be the new home of Please Touch Museum, the nation’s first museum for children ages seven and under. Please Touch is a hands-on "first museum experience" for kids, with child-friendly exhibits that are both educational and fun. The museum has embraced the challenge of creating a contemporary children’s museum in a building that embodies the spirit of the Victorian age. The new museum, scheduled to open in fall 2008, will offer 38,000 square feet of brand-new exhibits (more than triple the current 11,000), a newly restored 1924 Dentzel Carousel, on-site parking and a restaurant.

In this section of our press kit, read about the history of Please Touch, get some facts and figures about the Memorial Hall project, meet our leaders, and learn about America’s first world’s fair and the treasures it left behind.