Natural History Museums and
the Real Thing
The two pandas in this diorama were collected in 1934 in the Qionglai Mountains of Sichuan, by T. Donald Carter of the Museum's Department of Mammalogy. The mounted skins were on display until 1963; they have been in cold storage since that time.
Shaded circle identifies area where pandas were collected, near the modern reserve of Wolong. (From a 1935 article in Natural History.)
Skin of giant panda (AMNH 110451), spread out behind members of the Sage West China Expedition. (From left, T. Donald Carter, Anne Tilney Sage, Dean Sage Jr., and William Sheldon.)
Catalog entries recording accession of Carter's pandas into the Museum's mammalogy collection. (Aeluropus melanoleucus is an obsolete scientific name for the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca.)
Rocky landscape in the Qionglai Mountains, c. 1934. (All photos courtesy AMNH Department of
Library Services.)
There are no circumstances under which this Museum would collect or condone the collection of wild pandas today. What has not changed, however, is our enduring obligation to preserve and protect existing collections for scientific research and public education. Many species -- including some on display in this exhibition -- no longer exist in nature. Yet because they are represented in museum holdings, something of the real thing remains -- for study, for reminding, for the future.
The Panda's Shadow
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