A new interactive exhibit at the Reading Public Museum is giving visitors an opportunity to explore how everyday objects are made, drawing inspiration from the popular factory tour segments featured on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.
How People Make Things, on display through January 10, 2027, in the museum’s Meinig and World Cultures Galleries, introduces visitors to the people, ideas, tools, and technology involved in manufacturing familiar products.
The exhibit features hands-on activities using real factory tools and machines to demonstrate four manufacturing processes: molding, cutting, deforming, and assembly.
Visitors can use a die cutter to create a box and a horse, experiment with sculpting tools to cut wax, and transform straight wire into a spring by winding it around a metal shaft. Other activities include molding spoons with melted wax, assembling a trolley, and testing creations on a track.
The exhibition also incorporates factory tour videos from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, showing how products such as crayons, carousel horses, balls, traffic lights, quarters, shoes, toy cars, and toy wagons are manufactured.
Geoffrey K. Fleming, Executive Director and CEO of the Reading Public Museum, said the exhibition connects with Berks County’s longstanding manufacturing history while introducing younger visitors to potential career opportunities.
“How People Make Things is an especially meaningful exhibition to bring to Reading. Historically and today, manufacturing has been a driving force in our region’s economy and heritage, thanks to the skill and dedication of local workers. We hope this exhibition inspires a greater appreciation for the craftsmanship and innovation behind the everyday objects we use, while its interactive components spark children’s curiosity and encourage them to explore future careers in manufacturing and STEAM,” Fleming said.
The exhibition was inspired by Fred Rogers’ approach to explaining manufacturing through television segments that took viewers inside factories to see how familiar products were created.
“This exhibit brings children close to the real stuff, the nuts and bolts of how products are manufactured, which is very easy to feel removed from these days,” said Jane Werner, Executive Director of the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
“Through his factory tours, Fred Rogers took complex issues and made them simple and direct so children could understand them and relate them to their own lives. He made manufacturing fascinating and inspirational, and we continue that tradition with How People Make Things.”
The exhibit was developed by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in collaboration with Family Communications, Inc., the producer of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Learning in Out-of-School Environments.
Development of the exhibition was supported by the National Science Foundation and The Grable Foundation.
The Reading presentation is supported by the Berks County Community Foundation, with additional support from Brentwood Industries, East Penn Manufacturing, and the Wyomissing Foundation.
How People Make Things will remain on display at the Reading Public Museum through January 10, 2027.
