American Museum of Natural History Film

  1. Michael J. Novacek Vice President and Dean of Sciences of AMNH. 200 plus scientists and staff work in 22 buildings and 40 exhibit halls that make up the museum. Museum functions: Preservation, Research, and Education.
  2. Barnum Brown from Kansas studied fossil shells. He went to the Museum in 1897 and by the time he died in 1963 he had developed the largest and most diverse dinosaur collection in the world. There are in excess of 1,000 tons of fossils.
  3. Roy Chapman Andrews went on expedition to Mongolia in 1923 to search for the origins of early man. Instead he found the first fossils of dinosaur eggs. He is the model for the character of Indiana Jones.
  4. Dr. Martin Prinz is the curator of the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteors. Largest meteorite ever found was located and brought back by Admiral Robert Perry and named after his daughter “Anagito.” It took 4 years and 3 expeditions to move the meteorite. After getting it to New York it took another 10 years to get it moved to the Museum.
  5. Major collection of gem stones in the J. P. Morgan Hall of Gems. Major collection of minerals in the Harry Frank Gugenheim Hall of Minerals.
  6. In the 1920's Ralph Waldo Miner did under water painting to develop dioramas in the Hall of Marine Life. He did most of his diving 165 feet down off Andros Island in the Bahamas.
  7. About 100 years ago Carl Ackley a sculptor taxidermist developed and set the standard for diorama displays. His wife, Mary L. Job Ackley, finished his work after his death in 1926 of jungle fever, which is called the Ackley Hall of African Mammals.
  8. In 1895 Franz Boaz studied the development of human cultural origins. He was followed by his students and Margaret Mead in this work. From 1897 - 1901 the Jessup North Pacific Expeditions proved the Asian origins of most North American cultures.
  9. Segred Neandrass the famed sculptor did detailed reconstructions of various human societies and cultures.
  10. Dr. William Gutsch is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium. Many programs and displays presented on the subjects of Astronomy and Space Science.