1. This spectacular bird is named Epimachus ellioti, in honor of Daniel Giraud Elliot, one of the most important American ornithologists and naturalists of the nineteenth century. Elliot was a scientific founder of the American Museum of Natural History in 1869, and his personal collection of North American birds included the first specimens accessioned to the Museum. Elliot traveled the globe studying birds and published hundreds of papers, including multiple folio-sized monographs on groups of mammals and birds, including A monograph of the Paradiseidae or birds of paradise, in which this illustration appeared. Read more about Elliot’s life and work in this excerpt from Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library. © AMNH/D. Finnin

    This spectacular bird is named Epimachus ellioti, in honor of Daniel Giraud Elliot, one of the most important American ornithologists and naturalists of the nineteenth century. Elliot was a scientific founder of the American Museum of Natural History in 1869, and his personal collection of North American birds included the first specimens accessioned to the Museum.

    Elliot traveled the globe studying birds and published hundreds of papers, including multiple folio-sized monographs on groups of mammals and birds, including A monograph of the Paradiseidae or birds of paradise, in which this illustration appeared.

    Read more about Elliot’s life and work in this excerpt from Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library.

    © AMNH/D. Finnin

  2. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives! This image comes from the Research Library’s Lantern Slide Collection:A woman viewing Libra: The Scales, date unknown.View more images from our archives here.

    It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives! This image comes from the Research Library’s Lantern Slide Collection:

    A woman viewing Libra: The Scales, date unknown.

    View more images from our archives here.

  3. How do you re-create the moon shadows seen on a snowy December night? That was the challenge artist Stephen C. Quinn faced when new energy-efficient lights were installed in the wolf diorama, creating new shadows that weren’t consistent with the scene.

    Here, Quinn adds various pigments to the “snow” to re-create the illusion of shadows that would result from the Moon casting its eerie blue light on the wolves and surrounding trees. 

  4. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives:A skeletal illustration of a polar bear used in creating the diorama now seen in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. (Illustration dated 1920-1933)View more images from our archives here.

    It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives:

    A skeletal illustration of a polar bear used in creating the diorama now seen in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. (Illustration dated 1920-1933)

    View more images from our archives here.

  5. Have you seen today’s Google doodle? It’s on display at the Museum, along with 49 other Doodle 4 Google contest winners. See them all through July 14.

    Have you seen today’s Google doodle? It’s on display at the Museum, along with 49 other Doodle 4 Google contest winners.

    See them all through July 14.

    (Source: amnh.org)

  6. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives! A botanical sketch used in creating the Grant caribou diorama in the Hall of North American Mammals, which first opened in 1942.  Pictured: Buck brush and fire weed (c) AMNH Library

    It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives!

    A botanical sketch used in creating the Grant caribou diorama in the Hall of North American Mammals, which first opened in 1942. 

    Pictured: Buck brush and fire weed

    (c) AMNH Library

  7. In this video, curator Peter Whiteley takes us behind the scenes for a look at some of the incredible artifacts in the Museum’s Pacific Northwest Coast Peoples collection.

    Watch it here.

  8. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives!Taxidermist George Adams constructs the foundation for a Moa bird model, June 1951. © AMNH Library/2A2584 

    It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives!

    Taxidermist George Adams constructs the foundation for a Moa bird model, June 1951.

    © AMNH Library/2A2584 

  9. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives: art students at work in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals, 1956.© AMNH Library/#2A5136

    It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives: art students at work in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals, 1956.

    © AMNH Library/#2A5136

  10. Museum artist Stephen C. Quinn paints a mural for a new exhibition opening this fall. Quinn has worked on dioramas here at the American Museum of Natural History for nearly 40 years.  © AMNH/D. Finnin 

    Museum artist Stephen C. Quinn paints a mural for a new exhibition opening this fall. Quinn has worked on dioramas here at the American Museum of Natural History for nearly 40 years. 

    © AMNH/D. Finnin