In the 2006 movie Night at the Museum, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are shown catching the uptown bus on Central Park West after breaking out of a Museum diorama.
As visitors to the Museum quickly realize, Lewis and Clark actually can’t be found in any of our world-famous dioramas. But there is a way to see them: just step outside the main entrance and crane your neck up, way up.
The explorers—who began their famous expedition to the Pacific coast 210 years ago today—are depicted as full-size sculptures at the top of the Museum’s Central Park West façade, alongside statues of frontiersman Daniel Boone and naturalist-painter John James Audubon. Widely known for their journey through the uncharted West, Lewis and Clark also documented flora and fauna on their two-year trip, creating an invaluable snapshot of early nineteenth century America’s wilderness and wildlife.
The façade on which the sculptures are perched is itself part of a tribute to another naturalist-explorer, Theodore Roosevelt, whose official New York State memorial includes the interior Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda on the Museum’s second floor and Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall on the first floor as well.