St. Louis, Missouri 63101
Admission: free
https://www.stlouisfed.org/inside-the-economy-museum/
The Inside the Economy Museum is at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in downtown St. Louis. The bank was established in 1914 and the bank building was erected in 1924. The museum opened on the first floor in September 2014 and had 12,700 visitors its first full year of operation. One enters through the plaza entrance found on the south side of the bank building between Broadway and Fourth Street.
Upon entering one goes through full security measures. From there you are passed through to a second lobby where you are greeted by this large cube. It represents the amount of space that is needed to stack one million dollars in one-dollar bills.
There are 12 regional Reserve banks and St. Louis became the 11th to add a museum, each focusing on a different topic. Our museum focuses on the economy and the people's role in it and is divided into five zones covering 4700 square feet.
Entering into Zone 1 titled The Eighth District Comes Alive, you are surrounded by historic bank teller booths while you watch an introductory video/light show.
The remaining four zones are all encompassed in one large fascinating room that houses nearly 100 hands-on exhibits.
Zone 2 is titled How People Make Decisions. Here you learn about scarcity, the different types of capital, how education effects your future earnings, and the path to good credit.
The first of many interactive touch screens.
There are four of these screens below allowing four people to participate at the same time. Each screen gives you topic options and then four facts on how this topic is a part of the economy.
Open the doors to learn about influences in the different areas of interest.
I know a lot of people that love this validation in the display on human capital!
Zone 3 is titled How People Interact and includes why people participate in markets, how trade benefits the parties involved, and the role that money plays. The trade section includes information on goods and services originating in the Eighth District.
This import-export globe spins enabling one to get a global picture of trade.
Here you slide the name to see what product is exported from each country.
The museum even uses scents to teach economy.
These screens are from an eight-person interactive trading game where you compete against each other. I was not too good at trading my company's wheat!
This trading interactive is challenging and fun as you trade up your possession in an attempt to get to the end and the valuable items.
This exhibit is continually updated.
This video is showing people sorting and counting money. Under the screen one can push a button to open a vault door to enable you to watch live and in person employees working with bills in the vault next to the museum.
Zone 4 is The Connections Theater which shows several short videos with a new one starting about every ten minutes. We viewed one about the history of the Federal Reserve.
Zone 5 is You and the Economy. Here you discover how major decisions about the economy ultimately affect you, and how your life would differ if you lived in another place.
100 years ago the head of the household worked an average of 4200/hours a year. Now it is 1700 hours annually. This display shows how the life of the farmer has changed in this time period.
This interactive is probably our favorite. You choose what five areas in which you spend the most money and then indicate what percentage of your expenses each area represents. The screen then tells you how inflation has effected you in the last twelve months.
We also found this interactive interesting and surprising. It allows you to learn how educated are the residents of each Missouri county.
This display covered an entire wall.
A very informative display about the Federal Reserve System.
Here you can hear a former U.S. president discuss the economy with the Fed Chair.
This seven-foot sculpture not only symbolizes how bank laws are interconnected and build upon each other, but it also invites you to slide out pieces to learn fun facts.
Before leaving the museum you are invited to place a red sticker on the map to indicate where you live. In the 28 months the museum has been open, visitors have literally come from all over the world.
The small gift shop offers clothing, cups, plush toys, and other items bearing the museum's logo.
The shop also offers several children's books for different age levels that help children learn about different aspects of the economy. Each comes with a Parent Q&A.
Everyone who comes to the museum is welcome to take FREE shredded-money souvenirs. In a typical year, the St. Louis Fed shreds more than 110 million bills valued at about $2 billion because the bills are no longer fit for circulation.
Within the gift shop there is a display of free materials, and outside the door is a table of additional free materials. The Fed Reserve is known for its excellent free teaching materials.
Following our tour of the museum we ventured two blocks down the street to Tigín Irish Pub for a great lunch. http://www.tiginirishpub.com/stl/
The food and service were both excellent! Fish and Chips cup...
Special - Turkey soup and BLT with Brie
Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with Grilled Chicken - half size!
Comments: This museum was masterfully designed for maximum visitor participation which made for a very enjoyable visit. Many interactive displays have multiple screens so that one does not have to wait for a single screen to become available. All of the interactive opportunities help convince the visitor that economy can be fun and interesting. It also makes a great museum destination for children probably ages ten and up. You can't go wrong when you make education fun which is what they did when they built this museum.
All of us highly recommend visiting this new museum. One of our group shared that this was one of her favorite museums of the 22 that we have visited and she looks forward to bringing her grandchildren.
We spent about 90 minutes in the museum and there are a few things we missed that I would like to go back to see. There are no guides for the regular visitor but there were a few bank employees present that could answer questions. Unfortunately, we missed seeing a few things that we were not aware were there.
We visited the museum on a Thursday morning and it was not at all crowded.
The website is excellent for advice on planning a visit including a reminder that this is a high security building that requires a picture i.d. and no weapons, etc.
Parking is either in a garage or on the street, both of which include a fee. The MetroLink light-rail station is two blocks from the bank. Two of our group came by Metro and reminded us that the Metro is a great way to get there.
We had a quiet and relaxing lunch at Tigín Irish Pub. It was a great meal experience. To top it off, the waitress gave us the opportunity to spin a wheel for $5 off, allowing us to spin until we all got $5 off so it was an inexpensive meal, also!
