Renovations for the
Hall of North American Mammals and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall at the
Museum of Natural History
For seventy
years, the dioramas in the Hall of North American Mammals at the American
Museum of Natural History have greeted visitors warmly with a view onto a
moment in nature they would most likely otherwise never see. They’ve served the museum through wars,
national shakeups, and international struggle.
So it’s understandable that they might need a once-over.
In the past
year, they’ve gotten one. The wing of
the museum that includes that Hall has been fully renovated. Animals have had their fur brushed, their
ears made more translucent, and their eyes re-glistened. The backgrounds of their enclosures have been
repainted, and the lights that illuminate them but have lately caused them to
fade have been readjusted. In addition,
AMNH has added a memorial hall for its most famous advocate, President Theodore
Roosevelt, whose father chartered the museum.
The Roosevelt section is brief but in-depth, composed of four displays
added to the existing dioramas in the entry hall (spanning Roosevelt’s six
decades of life as an aspiring naturalist, politician, and philanthropist) and
a bronze statue of Teddy sitting serenely on a center bench.
The Hall of
North American Mammals is a far more impressive feat. A year of preparation has led to the
reopening of the hall with new donations and reinvigorated dioramas. It is difficult, surveying the work
taxidermists toiled over for so long, to remember a time when they looked any
different, but they did. A mere twelve
months ago the animals of our forests, deserts, and mountains appeared weary,
elderly, and approaching their final years (as before and after photos can attest). It’s thanks to the efforts of the talented
team at the museum that we can enjoy the naturalistic dioramas as they are
today. The Natural History Museum never
backs down from a challenge, and the Hall is no exception. It remains as memorable and identifiable as
it ever has been, with the added benefit of revitalized animals to teach,
exhibit and excite.
This Hall,
along with the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, is a landmark of the museum, one
that is identified with the institution as strongly as the greening statue of
Roosevelt straddling his horse on the museum’s steps. Both the Hall of Mammals and the Milstein Hall
are dark and quiet, mammoth and labyrinthine without appearing to be, and boast
a world-famous attraction that greets viewers right as they enter the hall—for
the Milstein Hall, the massive, benevolent whale that casts a shadow over the
entrance, for the Hall of Mammals, the lone bear standing on its hind legs,
perfectly shadowed as if on a stage. In
some ways, the hall is like a quiet theater where one can observe flashes of
stories from all walks of the animal kingdom.
For this drama we owe thanks to the taxidermists and artists who made
the hall possible.
For in a
more specific way, the Hall of North American Mammals is a different kind of
art. A representative for the museum in
a behind-the-scenes video about the renovation calls it “animal sculpture.” The museum’s artists have created something
here on the scale of Rodin, a monument for the ages dedicated to the human
acquisition of knowledge. It may be less
blatantly artistic and a little more icky, but the preservation of animal
specimens is as important to the scientific community as making sure live
animals stay that way. I applaud this
renovation and hope there will be many more to come in the museum and the
hall’s lifespan.
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