For some 45 years, the Pink Palace was known to locals as that singular museum of nature, science, and history. It picked up other similar missions in the region and evolved into the Pink Palace Family of Museums.
Now, it’s MoSH. That stands for Memphis Museum of Science & History, a name change and rebranding that has been percolating for 16 months.
Kevin Thompson, executive director of MoSH, announced the change today, saying that although many locals were familiar with the attraction, it was still having something of an identity crisis.
“For too long, visitors to Memphis have not known what the Pink Palace is or associated our properties together. Even many Memphians do not realize the Pink Palace, Lichterman Nature Center, Mallory-Neely House, Magevney House, and Coon Creek Science Center are all managed by one entity,” he said in a statement.
The “umbrella brand will enable us to unite our holdings and expand throughout our region,” he said.
If you’d been watching closely, you might have seen the change coming. The rebranding began in November, 2019, taking it slow and easy. “We were very sensitive to how the public would perceive changing the name, so we took a transitional approach to rebranding using the interim name Museum of Science & History — Pink Palace which has been in place since February 2020,” said Bill Walsh, marketing manager for MoSH.
If you want to insist on using the Pink Palace moniker, they’re OK with that. “There’s nothing wrong with calling us the Pink Palace,” Thompson said. “We plan to keep the name as a locator to direct you to the right place.”