The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, New York. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a tiny fraction can be displayed at any given time. This museum in New York occupies more than 2 million square feet (190,000 m2). AMNH has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
The mission statement of the American Museum of Natural History is: “To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”
Akeley Hall of African Mammals
Named after taxidermist Carl Akeley, the Akeley Hall of African Mammals is a two-story hall directly behind the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda. Its 28 dioramas depict in meticulous detail the fantastic range of ecosystems found in Africa and the mammals endemic to them. The hall’s centerpiece is a pack of eight African elephants in a characteristic ‘alarmed’ formation. Though mammals are typically the main feature in the dioramas, birds, and flora are occasionally featured. In the 80 years since Akeley Hall’s creation, many species within have become endangered, some critically, and the locations deforested. Top HVAC NYC
Hall of Asian Mammals
The Hall of Asian Mammals sometimes referred to as the Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of Asian Mammals, is a one-story hall directly to the left of the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda. It contains eight complete dioramas, four partial dioramas, and six habitat groups of mammals and locations from India, Nepal, Burma, and Malaysia. The hall opened in 1930 and, similar to the Akeley Hall of African Mammals, is centered around 2 Asian elephants. At one point, a giant panda and Siberian tiger were also part of Hall’s collection, originally intended to be part of an adjoining Hall of North Asian Mammals (planned in the current location of Stout Hall of Asian Peoples). These specimens can currently be seen in the Hall of Biodiversity.
Sanford Hall of North and Amphibian Halls
The Sanford Hall of North American birds is a one-story hall on the museum’s third floor, above the Hall of African Peoples and between the Hall of Primates and Akeley Hall’s second level. Its 25 dioramas depict birds from across North America in their native habitats. Opening in 1909, the dioramas in Sanford Hall were the first to be exhibited in the museum and are, at present, the oldest still on display. At the far end of the hall are two large murals by ornithologist and artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes. In addition to the species listed below, the gallery also has display cases devoted to extensive collections of warblers, owls, and raptors.
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