For more than half a century, walking through the Giant Heart has been a rite of passage for children in Philadelphia. With a dynamic human heartbeat emanating from within and a fresh, artistic spray of paint, now is the perfect time to revisit the newly-refreshed, beloved Giant Heart and the surrounding bioscience gallery. No visit to The Franklin Institute would be complete without visiting the icon that generations love with all their hearts!
See live heart and eye dissections daily, now shown in greater detail in our state of the art demonstration space. Watch a real beating heart undergo surgery in video-on-demand. Check out the vibrant new look of the Giant Heart, view hand-painted red blood cells lining the walls, and walk across a new floor installation of the world’s largest map of Philadelphia.
You'll gain new insights into public health issues, crawl through a giant artery, and marvel at the size of a whale heart. This exhibit is a celebration of the heart—inside the human body and inside The Franklin Institute—and we think you’ll love it with all your heart, too.
Supported by
and
National Institutes of Health
The Giant Heart is located in the F.M. Kirby Gallery of the Biosciences and The Joy and George Rathmann Hall of Science.
Things to Do and See in The Giant Heart
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Walk Through the Giant HeartTwo-stories high, this heart would be the accurate size for a 220-foot tall person.
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Crawl Through an ArteryPretend you're a blood cell navigating through 8-foot long clear and clogged arteries.
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Investigate the Spiral of Animal HeartsFind out how the size of a human heart compares to that of a bird, gorilla, or elephant.
Interactive Map
Floor
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