Exploring the World's Story at the American Museum of Natural History
Written: Dec 05 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Huge museum that explores the natural world (and universe)
Cons: Some older displays, could use more interactive hands-on exhibits, pricey
The Bottom Line: The American Museum of Natural History is quite simply one of the biggest, most complete, most fascinating museums of its kind. See it!
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: American Museum of Natural History |
Planet earth. What is it? What makes it tick? How did it get to be the way we see it today? How did life come about? What kinds of animals roamed this planet in centuries long past? What caused them to die in the past and what's making them die now? Why is nature important at all?
These are the kinds of questions that you can explore in the vast exhibit halls at New York's American Museum of Natural History. The largest such museum in the world, and one of several grand museums that make New York a Mecca for faithful museum patrons.
The American Museum of Natural History is a museum of superlatives, and you know it before you even enter the massive domed rotunda area of the main entrance, only to be greeted by a towering barosaurus (the world's best, and most complete specimen). You know it just walking by, where you see the massive globes dominating the 4-story high glass enclosures of the space and earth sciences wing --- a small area in this museum, but an area that is, by itself, larger than many natural history museums in the U.S.
Dinosaur Exhibits...
It's hard to believe, but true, that thousands of years ago, ponderously huge, hideously ugly creatures roamed the earth. Creatures whose only motivation in life was to devour things smaller and less powerful. Yep, an entire planet full of Dick Cheneys! They were called dinosaurs and they ruled the planet mercilessly.
It took an asteroid that caused an ice age to wipe those suckers out, and the entire fourth floor of the American Museum of Natural History tells their tales. Ostensibly, only half the fourth floor is given over to dinosaurs, since there are also some exhibits given over to the evolution of pre-ice age mammals, which were the up and coming breeds. But I think the kids will be just as fascinated by the towering wooly mammoths and sabre tooth cats as they are with the honest-to-goodness genuine article reptilians of Jurassic Park fame.
I always like displays that hammer home a bit more complex and realistic kind of lesson. That's why I loved the display where they had a long walkway with a glass floor over the fossilized spine of an ancient dinosaur, in sand, and looking like it would in situ where the archaelogists had recently discovered it lying beneath 20,000 years worth of sandy build-up. Kids wanted to crawl along and see every detail. Adults could marvel at its sheer length. Everyone comes away with some impression...
The dinosaur halls are clean and modern --- unlike some of the lower floors, it looks like the entire fourth floor was renovated within the last decade or so, incorporating more state-of-the-art museum displays, more interaction, and a heck of a lot more stylish looking green glass and lightly brushed aluminum. The galleries were brightly lit, the information informative and entertaining.
Space Sciences...
The museum has had a planetarium since forever and a day, but about 5 years ago, they cut the ribbon on a hugely expanded space and earth sciences wing housing a hundred different pathways for kids to approach the most cosmic physical questions. One of the most eggheaded, but inspired, displays is an attempt to answer questions about "how big" the world, the sun, the solar system might be. It's not too hard to explain to a kid that a house is bigger than a car, but how does the size of the sun, which appears as small as a nickel in the sky, compare to the moon, which appears to be of similar size? How about compared to the size of a tiny atom? Can you explain it to a kid? Well, maybe if you're strolling along the walkways that ring the facility, checking out the awesome "Scales of the Universe" exhibit...
I loved the Cosmic Pathway concept too....a walk along the figuratively spiraling interplay of time and evolution. And I'm not just talking evolution of species in the Darwinian sense, but rather the evolution of the universe from the time of the big bang, through the formation of the Milky Way galaxy, to the first days of a young Earth, and then, in recent times, to the appearance of life and the evolution of species.
Awesome space. Filled with hands-on, interactive exhibits, and embodying innovative ways of conveying information. This is an exhibit space that hammers home why this museum will continue to be America's foremost natural history museum, well into the 21st century.
Eco-Diversity...
The museum has countless halls filled with stuffed dead animals in simulated natural environments. You might think that somebody who'd already spent hours combing through all those halls would have a clue about the diversity of species walking, swimming, or flying around this planet. Yet all those halls tend to focus too tightly on niches of the natural world, either species-wise or place-wise---sometimes both. It's in the museum's Hall of Biodiversity that you really start to get a feel for how broad the range of living things really is, and you start to see that all those halls of stuffed animals actually represent a mere fraction of the total species on earth, especially once you start to think about the insect world, the undersea world, the plant world, etc. etc.
I love the mock rainforest display, which is very kid-friendly with pull-out directory cards that invite a kid to look more deeply at the display and try to find the critters that were, on a cursory glance, hidden behind greenery or rocks. It encourages kids to think about what animals and plants live together in the same environment, and how the species form symbiotic relationships, both benefiting from the presence of the other.
It's a natural segue into the Hall of Ocean Life, where some of the displays seem almost uncannily life-like and the lights in the whole hall flicker to create the impression that you're actually under the sea with constantly moving waves bending the light in magical ways. Kids like the interactive computer simulations almost as much as they love plopping on the floor in front of the massive high-def video screen to watch a few whale clips...(this is also where you can see the museum's famous, life-size model blue whale).
Rocks and Stuff....
You have to jump through some hoops to find the gallery, amid back-tracking and cargo elevators (since there are renovations going on in neighboring galleries), but the pain is worth it. This museum has a fascinating collection of rocks and minerals and stuff the earth is made of.
It's also connected to the Hall of Meteorites, which makes me think I need a heavier duty umbrella, and which has an enormous meteorite in the center stage, just begging for kids to come climb on it so the guards can tell them to get down.
The minerals collection at this museum is justly famous. You can find everything from displays that show how different kinds of stones are formed, to gigantic gemstones like the world-famous 563-caret Star of India---the largest such sapphire in the world. There's also a 632-caret emerald in here. Something tells me you won't see gems like these at the mall.
Animals Across the Earth...
African Mammals, Asian Mammals, North American Mammals, Reptiles, Birds, Misbehaved Children, you name the kind of wild beast and chances are fairly good that there's an exhibition hall in this museum, chock full of examples of state-of-the-art taxidermy, preserving forever, their poses against a backdrop of dioramas depicting the critters in their natural habitat.
These are the crux of the museum's traditional exhibitions....some of these animals have been in their same places for nigh on a century. These exhibits often represent the natural world as it existed in the heydays of safaris and expeditions, back in the late Victorian era. These exhibit halls are, to be honest, a bit musty to walk through, and the displays often old-fashioned, but I don't think the museum should change them a bit, especially since the poses are stunning and the backdrops works of art in themselves. Naturally, the high point of the animal halls is the herd of elephants charging down the center of the African Mammals Hall with such lifelike poses that you can practically hear the trumpeting. Gangway!!!
Cultural Exhibits...
There are several halls, mostly on the lower two levels, that delve into the world of human cultures. Some of the most fascinating of these are the pacific northwest exhibits on the lowest level, but the halls in this area don't seem to have been updated in at least 70 years. The exhibits are very old fashioned with sometimes rudimentary labels and interpretative aids and the whole gallery sometimes has the musty smell of digging through trunks in Grandpa's attic. In some ways this is cool....I couldn't help noticing that the heavy, dark wood display cases were labeled with actual in-laid wood. They sure don't do displays that way any more!
Given my own personal interest in Mexican cultures, I was fascinated by all the displays of indigenous, pre-Colombian American cultures in the twin halls for South American and Mexico and Central America. There are some interesting pieces here, including some large stelae taken from sites in the Yucatan and Guatemala. There are even some fascinating glimpses of treasures like the intricately patterned gold pieces that the Inca so loved, and myriad jade carvings from the Mayan-Central Rican trade routes. It's not an enormouse collection, but it's the best I've ever seen in the U.S.
The Best Stuff....
There's a lot of cool stuff in this museum, and you might very well have a different opinion than me as to what really ranks as the "best" and which more likely are gonna get skimmed over quickly. In my opinion, the best part of this museum is the dinosaur halls up on the fourth floor. Totally awesome stuff in an attractive and inviting setting. After that, I liked the cosmos stuff over in the space and earth sciences wing, though some of the physics concepts there are a little tough to explain to questioning minds. The bio-diversity exhibits are very kid-friendly, and they invite curious exploration. Lots of folks are impressed by the huge Star of India, but the gem hall is also surprisingly kid-friendly with a lot of big quartzes and numerous little alcoves that invite exploration. (To be honest though, when it comes to rocks, they really preferred the hall of meteorites.)
The Downsides...
No doubt about it, the American Museum of Natural History is an outstanding museum....first class in just about every respect. Still, there's a few areas where I think they come up just a notch short:
* Gallery appearance: Some of the older galleries, like those of the northwest indians on the first floor, or some of the mammal halls, look outdated with dim lighting and exhbits that don't seem to have been updated since 1930. These halls contrast starkly with the modernized exhibit spaces, like those for the dinosaurs, or meteorites.
* Interactivity: The space science exhibits have an excellent range of creatively designed hands-on activities for younger explorers. Things like the scattered scales that let a kid see what his or her weight would be on another planet, a moon, a comet, and so forth are the kinds of things that let a kid understand a scientific concept through experience. I'd like to see more hands-on and more creative thinking kinds of interactive displays throughout the museum. Those older halls, like the endless displays of stuffed animals against dioramas, are prime candidates for some touchy-feely kind of updates to fill the vast floorspace.
Logistics...
The museum is located on Central Park West at 79th Street. Admission is a steep $14 for adults, but like many New York area museums, it is a suggested donation and isn't a firm barrier to the disadvantaged. Hours are roughly 10am-6pm with extended hours on Fridays and Saturdays.
Bottom Line...
You might have seen natural history museums before, but until you visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, you haven't seen natural history museums. It's a classic!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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