Lucy Exposed

Over two years in the making, the exhibit shows how all museums employ skilled artists to bring their subject matter to life. Often the most memorable lessons are the artists’ impressions, not the actual science.

Few museums acknowledge the role of presuppositions, but the Creation Museum gives this message center stage. Indeed, the museum acknowledges its own starting assumptions, not just those of other museums.

The new exhibit includes stunning holographic imagery of the bones of Lucy, the cover girl of supposed human evolution. Guests see how the fragmented fossil bones can be reconstructed at various lengths to look more human-like.

Photos courtesy Creation Museum

A new Lucy exhibit at the Creation Museum demonstrates how artistic license in skin, eye color, and hair can have a powerful influence over what the viewer concludes about the evidence presented.

They also see several Lucy heads, all cast from the same original mold, to demonstrate the role of artistic license in skin, eye color, and hair. Based on hip blades and jawbone shape, she may even have looked something like a gorilla.

Holograms allow guests to take a virtual “look inside” Lucy—like a 3D X-ray—to see how some of the actual bones fit. Without this help, it is not always clear where science ends and artistic license begins. Dr. David Menton, a human anatomist who oversaw the exhibit, observes: “An imagination-rich artist can have a very powerful influence over what the viewer concludes about the evidence presented.”