The International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes

While we were at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, we bought tickets to explore the International Exhibit of Sherlock Holmes. It’s is a traveling exhibition and was in Denver for about a month. I am a big Sherlock fan and was excited to check it out. The exhibit was not what I was expecting, and I was kind of disappointed.

The first room (what I hoped the whole thing would be) was full of the history of Sherlock Holmes and the inspirations Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used in creating the characters and stories. Conan Doyle attended medical school in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Sherlock and Dr. Watson are amalgamations of his professors. You can view first editions of the stories, letters written to editors, and other cool Sherlock items (like movie posters).

The second and third rooms are an interactive detective story. You are handed a police-style booklet as you walk in. You then walk to different displays in the second room that talk about the early stages of forensic science and how they were used by police. Each display is interactive (like a blood splatter water gun) has a stamp for your booklet. The third room is a “real life” murder mystery. You collect clues from the different pieces of the story and use those and the first set to figure out the murderer.

It was insanely crowded when we went. We had the option of buying Sherlock tickets online, but I wasn’t sure how the military discount would apply (it didn’t). In the gift shop at the end of the exhibit, I saw a capacity ticker for the people inside. It was around 450. I would suggest buying tickets online for the first time slot or going during the week when it might be less crowded.

Have you been to the Sherlock exhibit?