Roosevelt Collections
Part of Hall of South American Peoples.
The Museum is an early voting site (enter at 77th Street).
Part of Hall of South American Peoples.
The early peoples of South America may have hunted a giant ground sloth, Mylodon darwinii, that became extinct 10,000 years ago. Its skin and dung, displayed here, were a gift from President Theodore Roosevelt.
This hall also displays numerous ethnographic specimens, including a Paresi bamboo flute in the Music case and a Nambikuara palm nut bead necklace in the Adornment case, both from Roosevelt's 1913-1914 expedition to South America. The arduous trip nearly cost Roosevelt his life.