1. 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 

  2. Originally created back in 1941, two cougars in our Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals were missing an essential feature. Over the years, they’d lost their whiskers—called vibrissae—that may help cats navigate and track prey into small spaces. So conservators and taxidermists looked long and hard for a replacement material. 

  3. How did Museum taxidermists and artists create true-to-life specimens for our habitat dioramas, including the evocative cougar (mountain lion) diorama pictured here? Artist Stephen C. Quinn explains the multi-step process in this video. Image (c) AMNH/C. Chesek

    How did Museum taxidermists and artists create true-to-life specimens for our habitat dioramas, including the evocative cougar (mountain lion) diorama pictured here?

    Artist Stephen C. Quinn explains the multi-step process in this video.

    Image (c) AMNH/C. Chesek

  4. Young Theodore Roosevelt loved studying nature, particularly birds. As a teen, he was able to identify most bird species in the northeastern U.S. by their song, flight pattern, courtship behavior, and plumage. He collected and mounted this Snowy Owl near Oyster Bay, Long Island in 1876, the same year he entered Harvard. It will return to public view when the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall reopens on October 27.© AMNH/C. Chesek

    Young Theodore Roosevelt loved studying nature, particularly birds. As a teen, he was able to identify most bird species in the northeastern U.S. by their song, flight pattern, courtship behavior, and plumage. 

    He collected and mounted this Snowy Owl near Oyster Bay, Long Island in 1876, the same year he entered Harvard. It will return to public view when the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall reopens on October 27.

    © AMNH/C. Chesek

  5. To create the lifelike moments in the Museum’s dioramas, artisans made meticulously accurate animal sculptures following a method developed by legendary explorer and taxidermist Carl Akeley. Artist Stephen C. Quinn explains how in this video.  Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin

    To create the lifelike moments in the Museum’s dioramas, artisans made meticulously accurate animal sculptures following a method developed by legendary explorer and taxidermist Carl Akeley. Artist Stephen C. Quinn explains how in this video. 

    Photo © AMNH/D. Finnin