1. Today’s peek into the archives comes from the Museum’s lantern slide collection. These hand-colored images were originally used to illustrate public lectures at the Museum. Pictured: Roy Chapman Andrews and Walter Granger with dinosaur bones on the Third Asiatic Expedition to Mongolia (1921-1930) © AMNH Library/LS3-26 

    Today’s peek into the archives comes from the Museum’s lantern slide collection. These hand-colored images were originally used to illustrate public lectures at the Museum.

    Pictured: Roy Chapman Andrews and Walter Granger with dinosaur bones on the Third Asiatic Expedition to Mongolia (1921-1930)

    © AMNH Library/LS3-26 

  2. 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

  3. “He will probably be set down as one of the most famous lovers of all natural things,” wrote Russell Owen of Carl Akeley in 1936. 

    In this photo, exhibition staff apply finishing touches to the mountain gorilla diorama in the Museum’s Akeley Hall of African Mammals. Explorer, naturalist, artist, and taxidermist Carl Akeley, who designed this iconic hall,  first encountered the mountain gorilla in 1921. Returning to Africa for additional research in 1926, Akeley died near this site and was buried on the side of Mount Mikeno, which is depicted in the background painting.

    Today’s peek into the archives comes from the New York Times’ The Lively Morgue.

    (via livelymorgue)

  4. “There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as it does protection.” - Theodore Roosevelt 

    “There is a delight in the hardy life of the open.

    There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.

    The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value.

    Conservation means development as much as it does protection.”

    - Theodore Roosevelt 

  5. Though many people might be quick to call this familiar-looking dinosaur a Brontosaurus, that’s actually a name that stems from a case of mistaken identity and has since been retired. Read the behind-the-scenes story of how this sauropod got its proper name here, and don’t forget to get your tickets to hear astrophysicist Mario Livio speak about other brilliant blunders at the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater on June 10 at 7pm. 

    Though many people might be quick to call this familiar-looking dinosaur a Brontosaurus, that’s actually a name that stems from a case of mistaken identity and has since been retired. Read the behind-the-scenes story of how this sauropod got its proper name here, and don’t forget to get your tickets to hear astrophysicist Mario Livio speak about other brilliant blunders at the Hayden Planetarium Space Theater on June 10 at 7pm. 

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. It’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives! This image comes from the Research Library’s Lantern Slide Collection:Yvette Borup Andrews, wife of explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, feeding bears in Yun Nan Teng-yeuh, China, on the Asiatic Zoological Expedition (1916-1917).See more photos from the Museum’s archives here.

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

    Yvette Borup Andrews, wife of explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, feeding bears in Yun Nan Teng-yeuh, China, on the Asiatic Zoological Expedition (1916-1917).

    See more photos from the Museum’s archives here.

  9. 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

  10. 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