American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is one of the largest museums in the world, with many halls full of amazing things to see. The museum has millions of specimens, including plants, animals, rocks, and fossils. Only a small part can be shown at any time.

The museum was first thought up by a naturalist named Albert S. Bickmore in 1861, and it opened its doors to the public on May 22, 1871. Over the years, many new parts of the museum have been built, including a special place called the Rose Center for Earth and Space that opened in 2000.

Today, the museum is visited by many people each year. It also has scientists who travel the world to learn more about nature and share their discoveries with everyone. The museum is very important for learning about the natural world and our place in it.

History

See also: List of castles in the United States

The idea for the American Museum of Natural History started with a naturalist named Albert S. Bickmore in 1861. He thought New York City was a great place for a big museum about nature. After the American Civil War ended, Bickmore asked important people in New York to help. In 1869, they agreed to create the museum. It opened to the public in 1871 in a building called the Arsenal in Central Park.

Over time, the museum grew and added more exhibits. It moved to a permanent home on Manhattan Square in 1877. More wings and buildings were added to hold the growing collection. Today, the museum has many halls with interesting displays about nature and history.

The original Victorian Gothic building was designed by Calvert Vaux and J. Wrey Mould to look like the style of Central Park across the street. It was built on 77th Street and had a tall gallery with many exhibits. Even though newer buildings hide it, this part of the museum is still used today.

The museum’s original plan imagined many more buildings around a large square, with tall towers and a big dome in the middle. Only part of this big design was built, but the museum grew to include many connected halls and spaces for showing its large collection of natural history specimens.

New York State Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt

The main entrance hall on Central Park West is called the New York State Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. It was finished in 1936 and looks very grand. The hall has pink-granite outside that looks like old Roman arches, with a big terrace and steps in front.

Inside, the hall is tall and wide, with a high ceiling and beautiful marble walls. There are large pictures showing important events from Theodore Roosevelt’s life, such as building the Panama Canal and exploring Africa. The hall today connects to other exhibition rooms and tells us about Roosevelt’s work in protecting nature.

Mammal halls

The Akeley Hall of African Mammals shows 28 displays of African animals and where they live. The main display is a group of eight African elephants. This hall opened in 1936. It was planned by Carl Akeley.

The Hall of Asian Mammals has displays from India, Nepal, Burma, and Malaysia. It opened in 1930 and includes models of Asian elephants and other animals.

The Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals features 43 displays of animals from North America, including Alaskan brown bears, wolves, and Alaska moose. It opened in 1942. Nearby, the Hall of Small Mammals shows smaller animals like collared peccaries and Abert's squirrel.

Birds, reptiles, and amphibian halls

The Sanford Hall of North American birds is on the third floor, between the Hall of Primates and Akeley Hall's second level. It has over 20 displays showing birds from North America in their natural homes. At the end of the hall, there is an old painting of pink flamingos by the artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes. The hall also has special displays for large groups of warblers, owls, and raptors.

The Hall of Birds of the World is on the south side of the second floor. This hall shows many types of birds from around the world. Twelve displays show different places and the birds that live there. Examples include South Georgia with king penguins and skuas, the East African plains with secretarybirds and bustards, and the Australian outback with honeyeaters, cockatoos, and kookaburras.

Biodiversity and environmental halls

The Hall of Biodiversity, under the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, opened in May 1998. It shows how plants and animals work together and why we need many different species. You can see a big rainforest display in three conditions: natural, changed by people, and destroyed by people. The hall also has videos, stories, and ideas for protecting nature.

The Hall of North American Forests opened in 1958. It has ten detailed scenes of forests from places across North America. Each scene shows a special place and time of year. The hall also has displays about caring for forests and keeping trees healthy. One display has a piece of a very old tree called the Mark Twain Tree.

The Warburg Hall of New York State Environments opened in 1951. It shows the natural world around Pine Plains in New York. It explains different soils, changing seasons, and how people and animals affect the environment.

The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life focuses on life in the oceans. The center of the hall has a very large model of a blue whale. The hall shows many ocean environments, like kelp forests, mangroves, and coral reefs. It also has big displays of ocean animals and a famous scene of a squid and a whale. The hall opened in 1924 and has been updated many times to show the importance of protecting ocean life.

Human origins and cultural halls

The American Museum of Natural History has many halls showing the history of humans and different cultures from around the world.

The Stout Hall of Asian Peoples shows items from Asia, including from places like Japan, China, and India. Visitors can see models of ancient towns and learn about life in Asia long ago. The Hall of African Peoples displays the lives of people from Africa, showing their homes, tools, and ways of living from different areas such as river valleys and grasslands. The Hall of Mexico and Central America has treasures from ancient civilizations like the Maya and Aztec, with statues and other important objects. The Hall of South American Peoples shows items from countries such as Peru and Bolivia, including old art and everyday objects used by ancient peoples.

The Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples has collections from islands in the Pacific Ocean, like New Zealand and Australia, with clothes, tools, and statues. The Northwest Coast Hall displays items from Native American tribes along the Pacific Northwest, including totem poles and canoes. The Hall of Plains Indians shows life of tribes like the Blackfeet and Dakota, with tools and clothes they used. The Hall of Eastern Woodlands Indians has exhibits about tribes from eastern North America, such as the Iroquois and Ojibwe, showing their homes, canoes, and other important items.

The Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins tells the story of how humans evolved over millions of years. Visitors can see models of our ancient ancestors, including life-size figures of early humans. The hall also shows important fossils and ancient art made by early humans.

Earth and planetary science halls

The Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites shows amazing space rocks. One big rock from Greenland weighs as much as 34 tons. You can also see tiny diamonds older than our planet that came from meteorites.

The Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals display sparkling gems and minerals, such as the famous Star of India. These halls were updated to make learning more fun and help visitors understand ideas better.

The David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth tells the story of our planet from its beginning until today. It has rocks from all over the world, some as old as 4.3 billion years. Visitors can touch big rocks and learn about volcanoes, Earth's layers, and more.

Main article: Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals

Fossil halls

The American Museum of Natural History has many interesting fossil halls with amazing discoveries. Most of the museum’s fossil collections, including many dinosaur and mammal fossils, are kept in special storage areas inside the museum. One of the biggest storage buildings is the Childs Frick Building, which has labs and offices on its top floors.

Visitors can see some of the most famous fossils on the fourth floor. Here, you can walk through halls filled with different kinds of ancient animals. Some of the most famous displays include a real Tyrannosaurus rex made from real bones found in Montana, a giant Mammuthus (a type of ancient elephant), and many different kinds of dinosaurs like Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus. These fossils help us learn about life from millions of years ago.

Rose Center for Earth and Space

Main article: Rose Center for Earth and Space

The Hayden Planetarium is part of the American Museum of Natural History and belongs to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. The planetarium started in 1933 and opened to the public in 1935. The Rose Center itself was announced in 1995 and completed in 2000. It was designed by James Stewart Polshek and features a large glass cube with a bright sphere inside that looks like it is floating. This sphere is known as the Space Theater.

The Rose Center has many spaces for learning and displaying exhibits, including the Hayden planetarium and the Department of Astrophysics. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is in charge of the planetarium. There is also a special glass area named the Weston Pavilion, which helps visitors enter the museum and shows more space-related objects. One of the most popular exhibits is the Heilbrun Cosmic Pathway.

Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation

The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, designed by Studio Gang, opened in May 2023. This big building has six floors above ground and one below. It has a new entrance on Columbus Avenue, leading to a large space that connects to the rest of the museum. The design of this space looks like natural shapes, such as canyons, and is made with a special building material called shotcrete.

The Gilder Center has special rooms for insects, including an insectarium and a butterfly vivarium, where visitors can see live butterflies. There are also places to see science specimens, a library, classrooms, and labs. One exciting exhibit is “Invisible Worlds,” an interactive show about tiny parts of nature, such as how brain cells work and how plants share water.

The center was originally planned to be built in a park, but it was moved closer to the museum after some people said they didn’t want it in the park. The new building replaced three older buildings on Columbus Avenue.

Exhibitions Lab

Main article: AMNH Exhibitions Lab

The AMNH Exhibitions Lab began in 1869 and has created many fun displays. The team mixes new science with art and technology to help people learn. Besides the famous animal displays at the museum and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, the lab has also made shows for museums all over the world and tools like the Digital Universe Atlas.

Today, the lab has more than sixty creative people, such as artists, writers, and designers. They work together to make two to three big exhibits each year. These shows often travel to other museums. Some of their important exhibits were the first to talk about Darwinian evolution and how people change the climate [/w/4].

Research Library

The Research Library is open to both museum staff and visitors. It is on the fourth floor and has many interesting topics like animals, Earth and space science, human history, insects, fish, fossils, birds, rocks and minerals, and more. The library has many old books, some from the 1400s, that are hard to find anywhere else.

Over the years, the library grew with gifts from many people, including books about shells, fishes, birds, insects, and travels. In 1992, a new library building was made, covering over 55,000 square feet. Today, it holds more than 550,000 books, magazines, pictures, films, and special items. Some special collections include records about the museum’s history, art, movies, and files about past exhibitions and trips.

Main articles: mammalogy, earth, planetary science, astronomy, astrophysics, anthropology, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, paleontology, ethology, mineralogy, invertebrates, systematics, ecology, oceanography, history of science, museology, bibliography, genomics, biological sciences

Activities

The American Museum of Natural History has a big team of scientists. They travel around the world to study nature. These trips bring back important fossils and other discoveries that you can see on display.

The museum also helps students and teachers learn more about science. It has special programs and school visits.

The museum has its own school. Students can study with experts and learn from the museum’s collections. This school helps train new science teachers and offers advanced studies for students who love to explore the natural world.

Notable people

Presidents

The American Museum of Natural History has had many leaders since it started. The first three helped begin the museum. Later leaders helped it grow. Some important leaders are Henry Fairfield Osborn, who helped the museum grow, and Ellen V. Futter, the first woman to lead the museum. Today, Sean M. Decatur leads the museum, and he is the first African American to have this job.

Other associated names

Many famous scientists and explorers have worked with the museum. These include Roy Chapman Andrews, known for finding dinosaurs, and Margaret Mead, a pioneer in studying cultures. The museum has been a place for important discoveries and research.

Surroundings

The museum is located at 79th Street and Central Park West. You can get there using the New York City Subway at the 81st Street–Museum of Natural History station, where the B and ​C trains stop.

Outside the museum's Columbus Avenue entrance is a special stainless steel time capsule. It was sealed in the year 2000 to mark a new time in history and is shaped like a folded flower. It will be opened in the year 3000. The museum is in Theodore Roosevelt Park, a park with benches, gardens, lawns, and a dog run. On the west side of the park, between 80th and 81st Streets near Columbus Avenue, you can see the Nobel Monument. It honors Nobel Prize winners from the United States.

Commentary

In 2019, a writer named Hamid Dabashi talked about a statue in the museum. The statue showed an explorer on a horse above two other people, one from a Native American community and one from an African American community. Dabashi thought this showed old ideas about race that are not fair. Because of talks about fairness, the statue was taken down in 2022.

Another writer, Julia Rodriguez, compared this museum to a museum in Paris. She thought the museum in New York could share more stories about how some histories have been unfair to certain groups.

In 2024, a teacher named Priya Satia wrote about how the museum showed Asian cultures. She felt this could lead to misunderstandings about Asian and Middle Eastern communities. Another teacher, Samuel Abrams, did not agree with her ideas.

In popular culture

The American Museum of Natural History is in many books, movies, and TV shows. It is in the films Wonderstruck, Night at the Museum, and The Squid and the Whale. The museum is also in books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. In the TV show Friends, a main character works there.