Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) — Attraction in Seattle

I love this museum! I learned so much about Seattle’s history, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I spent about four hours here, with a break for lunch (your ticket includes free same day re-entry, making it possible to step out and enjoy the park whenever you want a break.) I think you could easily make it through in two hours if you don’t stop and read everything and watch all the videos the way I did. The exhibits are laid out in a way that makes it simple to go through in the right order and at your own pace, with plenty of benches for resting (and cool compilations of historic films to watch), and an open layout so it’s no problem if you need to step out. There are lots of interactive displays that are kid friendly, but that I, a grown up, also just LOVED.

I think my favorite thing in the whole museum was the section on the Great Fire of 1890, a seven minute multimedia musical extravaganza (I do not exaggerate). I watched it twice!

I had previously assumed (based on the name) that MOHAI was mostly a museum of industry and machinery, but it’s really a museum of Seattle history, that tells the story of how people lived here from the pre-colonial period to today, including a focus on how industries and the people who ran them and the changes they brought shaped the city, in good ways and bad.

I was really impressed by how graceful the storytelling was throughout. They brought together the stories of all the different peoples who lived here to show how Seattle has grown and changed and learned over the last two hundred years. We often hear that progress isn’t linear, but that eventually the world will get better if we try to make it so. In the very scary here and now, that can be hard to believe. But MOHAI shows how in the history of this one city, though there have been many setbacks, and lots of changes for the worse, people have worked hard to do better by one another, and over the long term, things have tended more to the good.

Walking out of the museum, I felt a lot more optimistic about the future than I have in a long time....

Decent museum, but I don't feel it's very worth the admission unless you are a Seattle history nerd or the rotating exhibits are something you're interested in.

I do recommend using the visitor guide for your visit to ensure you enjoy the exhibits in a more logical order since wandering around on my own did not give as good as an experience. I found that without it, the layout of the museum to be unintuitive and hard to understand the flow. I ended up going around exhibits backwards accidentally. Some exhibits had more natural flow than others .

There is lots of information in the museum, so plenty of plaques to read, and accompanying pictures. Some exhibits felt jumbled; Japanese internment was mixed with war bonds, women working at Boeing, and a dress from Nordstrom. Also, some exhibits felt more surface level and appealing to children, yet the rest of the museum was more in depth. I wish the Native American area had as much as there was on logging, for example.

There is a hysterical musical for the Seattle fire, that was over too soon. The underground tour did a better job of explaining all the details in my opinion however. It is cool they supposedly have the glue pot that started the fire though...

A little section on Microsoft if you are into some of the history of computing.

There is a huge empty space in the middle of the museum with nothing in it, along with some sparse areas and a huge empty meeting room next to the cafe. This felt weird. It feels like the museum is prioritizing event space. The cafe is alright and the patio is nice when the weather is good. The gift...

MOHAI talks about the Seattle experience, in a way the internationalized Seattle Art Museum doesn't. It's a reflection of local invention and industriousness. If you only see one thing, watch the video in the second floor screening room, close to the stairs. It's a stirring, even patriotic reflection of what the city stands for, often too complimentary but certainly inspiring.

The museum is wonderfully curated, with an impressive selection of artifacts and helpful placards. There's a massive amount to see. Although it's a small building, the exhibits are numerous and compact enough to allow for several hours of serious perusal. They managed to get some pivotal artifacts, like the Sonics' 1979 championship trophy and the first piece of Microsoft software. These lend a certain gravity to the museum's collection.

With this focus on industrialization and commercialization comes considerable oversights. It tends to credit more than challenge efforts at industrial dominance, talking at length about their benefits while sidestepping environmental devastation, oppression of natives, and the greed of Seattle-based multinationals. A more balanced picture, less tainted by corporate donors, would do this city more credit. As it stands, MOHAI reflects the many ways Seattle has become just like...