The Museum in Pictures

Thursday, January 14 9:05 am

A dinosaur tail hauled to the exhibit hall, a teeth-cleaning for a killer whale replica, and a restorer swinging in the jaws of a prehistoric shark: these are just three amazing images from the rich photographic record of education and exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History available in the online collection Picturing the Museum.

“Anyone who loves the Museum will be completely entranced by this website. My father used to bring me to the Museum when I was a kid, and this is where I discovered the joy of intellectual discovery,” says Museum Archivist Barbara Mathé, head of Special Collections at the Museum’s Research Library.

Picturing the Museum features nearly a thousand historic images, including photographs of the Museum’s world-famous dioramas, behind-the-scenes glimpses at exhibition preparation, and educational programs. The Research Library began the project after receiving a digitization grant from the Metropolitan New York Library Council and continues to scan additional photos, with the ultimate goal of creating an image database documenting the Museum’s work worldwide.

“Every time I look, I find a new favorite,” says the Library’s Acting Director Tom Baione.

To find out more about the Research Library’s collections, visit the library’s website.

Ray De Lucia and Matt Kalmenoff working on Killer Whale Group, Hall of Ocean Life in 1927 © AMNH/H.S. Rice

This photo was taken while the fossil jaws of a prehistoric shark, or Carcharodon megalodon, underwent restoration in 1927 © AMNH/H.S. Rice

Museum staff move the colossal Apatosaurus tail in 1938 © AMNH/C. Coles