Behringer Crawford Museum

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	The Behringer Crawford Museum Covington, KY Photos by Jim Cummings, Article by Kathy Cummings






	The Behringer Crawford also has it’s share of typical museum exhibits. There are paleontology finds from the surrounding areas. Nearby Big Bone Licks is the discovery home of such mastodon bones.


	The theme of the Behringer Crawford Museum is Rivers, Roads, Rails and Runways. From the trolley car as you enter the museum to the 2nd and 3rd floor mock paddlewheeler it was a pleasant visit to another small area museum.



	As you enter the front door you can see “The Kentucky” a renovated streetcar that came in directly on rails that run across the floor of the museum. More photos of the trolley...



	The museum is very kid friendly. The train display on the first floor has two amazing clear bubbles right in the center of the display. Kids can crawl through a tunnel and stand up in the middle of the display for a total 360 degree view from the inside. More on the trains...



	But the hands on exhibits are not just for the kids. A 1959 Buick Electra enables adults to sit in the car as if is in a drive in movie of a bygone era while a video takes you back to family life in the 1950’s.



		Sitting in the driver’s seat....


			The Paddlewheeler

		The second and third floor are combined with the mock steamboat reaching from floor to floor. Here is a place for children (or adults) to sit at the wheel with a panel of buttons that play all the sounds of the riverboat. There is also a rack of children’s clothing - all ready for make believe. As the third floor winds around, the far side is made to look like the famous suspension bridge that links Kentucky to Ohio. The little extra touches are to me what makes a quality museum. And here the crowning touch on the second floor is flooring made to look like water.

Working within a small space is one of the challenges that we see in small area museums. Here at The Behringer-Crawford every bit of space is put to good use. The photo at left not only shows the floor tiles to make it look like water for the surrounding boat theme, but even the doorway into storage space is lightly concealed by a painting of the Delta Queen, the famed paddlewheeler that used to make her home port in nearby Cincinnati.