1. 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.

  2. In 2001, the Museum’s famous blue whale model did not look as it does today. First constructed in the mid-1960s, the model was based on photographs of a female blue whale that had been found dead in 1925. At the time, little was known about what blue whales looked like in the wild. By the time the Hall of Ocean Life closed for renovation in 2002, Museum artists had many photographs and footage of live whales on which to base their work. They flattened the model’s once-overly bulging eyes, accurately redesigned the whale’s blowholes, and tapered the tail. Using about 25 gallons of cobalt and cerulean blue paint, the team also recolored and respotted the grayish blue whale.  When the Irma and Paul Milstein Hall of Ocean Life reopened in 2003, the newly renovated gallery was transformed. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary of this beloved hall on Sunday, May 19, at the family-friendly Milstein Science Series: Whales.

    In 2001, the Museum’s famous blue whale model did not look as it does today. First constructed in the mid-1960s, the model was based on photographs of a female blue whale that had been found dead in 1925. At the time, little was known about what blue whales looked like in the wild.

    By the time the Hall of Ocean Life closed for renovation in 2002, Museum artists had many photographs and footage of live whales on which to base their work. They flattened the model’s once-overly bulging eyes, accurately redesigned the whale’s blowholes, and tapered the tail. Using about 25 gallons of cobalt and cerulean blue paint, the team also recolored and respotted the grayish blue whale. 

    When the Irma and Paul Milstein Hall of Ocean Life reopened in 2003, the newly renovated gallery was transformed. Come celebrate the 10th anniversary of this beloved hall on Sunday, May 19, at the family-friendly Milstein Science Series: Whales.

  3. Long before Roy Chapman Andrews’ famed fossil hunts in the Gobi Desert (where his team discovered many new mammal and dinosaur fossils, including the first nests of dinosaur eggs), he traveled the world studying whales. Pictured: Roy Chapman Andrews on the schooner Adventuress in Alaska in October 1913 © AMNH Library/219165 (via Roy Chapman Andrews, Whales Researcher)

    Long before Roy Chapman Andrews’ famed fossil hunts in the Gobi Desert (where his team discovered many new mammal and dinosaur fossils, including the first nests of dinosaur eggs), he traveled the world studying whales.

    Pictured: Roy Chapman Andrews on the schooner Adventuress in Alaska in October 1913

    © AMNH Library/219165

    (via Roy Chapman Andrews, Whales Researcher)

    (Source: amnh.org)

  4. Happy 176th birthday to John Burroughs! He was a noted naturalist, close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and a key voice in the early 20th-century conservation movement. Roosevelt called John Burroughs “Oom John,” using the Dutch term for uncle. They shared a passion for the study of nature and joined in a public campaign against nature writers who took liberties with the facts, the so-called “nature fakers.” (via Happy Birthday, John Burroughs!)

    Happy 176th birthday to John Burroughs! He was a noted naturalist, close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, and a key voice in the early 20th-century conservation movement.

    Roosevelt called John Burroughs “Oom John,” using the Dutch term for uncle. They shared a passion for the study of nature and joined in a public campaign against nature writers who took liberties with the facts, the so-called “nature fakers.”

    (via Happy Birthday, John Burroughs!)

  5. Here’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives: school kids examine the Museum’s Apatosaurus mount (then known as Brontosaurus). July 1927.The Museum’s “Brontosaurus” took six years to mount and used four different specimens collected from Como Bluff by Walter Granger and other Museum paleontologists. Since Granger and his team did not find a head with their specimen, they gave it a sculpted head of another sauropod, Camarasaurus (pictured). More on the history of the Brontosaurus here.  © AMNH Library/#312166

    Here’s Tuesday’s peek into the archives: school kids examine the Museum’s Apatosaurus mount (then known as Brontosaurus). July 1927.

    The Museum’s “Brontosaurus” took six years to mount and used four different specimens collected from Como Bluff by Walter Granger and other Museum paleontologists. Since Granger and his team did not find a head with their specimen, they gave it a sculpted head of another sauropod, Camarasaurus (pictured).

    More on the history of the Brontosaurus here. 


    © AMNH Library/#312166

  6. Spotted in NYC today: our hypothetical common ancestor!  Our ancestor still needs a name, so don’t forget to vote today. Photo via Radiolab

    Spotted in NYC today: our hypothetical common ancestor! 

    Our ancestor still needs a name, so don’t forget to vote today.

    Photo via Radiolab

  7. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.” He articulated a vision of America that emphasized natural places as elements that define a nation’s character and that are foundational to the individual’s rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For citizens today, those notions may be controversial, if not completely remote from contemporary ideas of America. On Tuesday, April 9, join Tom Brokaw and a panel of experts for in-depth look at the country’s current conservation policies and impact. The discussion will illuminate 21st century imperatives that can contribute to reconstructing and expanding an American identity forged in an intimate relationship to its natural history. Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

    Theodore Roosevelt once said, “There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.”

    He articulated a vision of America that emphasized natural places as elements that define a nation’s character and that are foundational to the individual’s rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For citizens today, those notions may be controversial, if not completely remote from contemporary ideas of America.

    On Tuesday, April 9, join Tom Brokaw and a panel of experts for in-depth look at the country’s current conservation policies and impact. The discussion will illuminate 21st century imperatives that can contribute to reconstructing and expanding an American identity forged in an intimate relationship to its natural history.

    Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

  8. 110 years ago today, President Theodore Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge: Pelican Island. Today, it remains an essential breeding ground for migratory waterfowl.Find out how Pelican Island has changed over the last century in this Q&A. Photo: John and Karen Hollingsworth

    110 years ago today, President Theodore Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge: Pelican Island. Today, it remains an essential breeding ground for migratory waterfowl.

    Find out how Pelican Island has changed over the last century in this Q&A.

    Photo: John and Karen Hollingsworth

  9. Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin! While living in London, he made scientific notes in this leather notebook. Celebrate Darwin Day by perusing his scientific writings online, available through the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the Museum. (via Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin!)

    Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin! While living in London, he made scientific notes in this leather notebook.

    Celebrate Darwin Day by perusing his scientific writings online, available through the Darwin Manuscripts Project at the Museum.

    (via Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin!)

  10. When Carl Akeley first envisioned the Akeley Hall of African Mammals he imagined it would provide visitors with glimpses of African landscapes as though through the windows of a moving train. The tradition of habitat dioramas at the Museum is a storied one and some of the finest examples can be seen in the restored Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals.

    When Carl Akeley first envisioned the Akeley Hall of African Mammals he imagined it would provide visitors with glimpses of African landscapes as though through the windows of a moving train.

    The tradition of habitat dioramas at the Museum is a storied one and some of the finest examples can be seen in the restored Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals.