When I was about 3 years old my parents took me to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia - we lived right across the Delaware, in Trenton back then - and while I remember little else about the trip, I still have deep-seated memories of walking through its then most-popular attraction, the Giant Walk-Through Heart. I remember looking up at the changing light patterns inside this awesome red-and-blue-lit Bradburyesque, Poe-ish thumping marvel, and feeling miniscule and surrounded by a whale-size cardiac rhythm.

For Philadelphia-area baby boomers, annual class trips often meant visits to the Liberty Bell or the Franklin Institute heart, whose narrow passages and thumping audio (buh-BOOM, buh-BOOM) both frightened and delighted those who entered.

The two-story heart, a papier-mache-on-metal creation, opened as a temporary exhibit called "The Engine of Life" in January 1954 and quickly became the museum's signature attraction. The model underwent two earlier facelifts, but even now survives pretty much intact, save for some fresh paint and new details.

[A large JPG of the interior is available here, and the Franklin Institute's Press Box page on the Giant Heart is here.] Thump THUMP Thump THUMP...

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