A variety of visual feasts awaits at the Museum this weekend, including:

Natural Histories

Dating from nearly 500 years ago through the early 1900s, the natural history illustrations featured in the current exhibition Natural Histories (inspired by the 2012 book Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library) retain the power to surprise. Visitors can see 50 oversized prints of some of these beguiling, and often still scientifically important, images on view on the Museum's first floor, in the gallery next to the LeFrak theater.

The subjects featured range from invertebrates, including the butterflies of Surinam...

German naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) spent two years documenting the flora and fauna of Surinam, South America, creating the book Metamorphosis, from which this engraving is reproduced. 

© AMNH/D. Finnin

…as well as vertebrates, including the rare Madagascar primates called aye-ayes...

A hand-painted lithograph from Monograph on the Aye-Aye, published in 1863 and written by Sir Richard Owen. The illustration is by Joseph Wolf.

© AMNH/D. Finnin

…and even images of dynamic Earth, including Mt. Vesuvius in Italy, as it erupted in the year 1776.

In this image from Campi Phlegraei: observations on the volcanoes of the Two Sicilies (1776) by William Hamilton (1731−1803), Hamilton has escorted a group of dignitaries, including the king and queen of Naples, to view Vesuvius in full eruption, spewing lava and gases. The book’s illustrator, Pietro Fabris, can be seen sketching nearby (lower left).

© AMNH/D. Finnin

The exhibition is free for Members or with Museum admission. Learn more.

Mysteries of the Unseen World

After taking in beautiful illustrations from previous eras, step into the 21st century with Mysteries of the Unseen World, an eye-popping National Geographic production now showing in 2D or 3D on the 40-foot-by-60-foot screen in the LeFrak Theater. Depictions of natural phenomena too fast or too slow for the human eye unfold before viewers, including seeds unfurling into plants; and an owl flying gracefully through the forest; and insects in surprisingly mesmerizing slow-motion flight. 

Watch a trailer to learn more, or purchase tickets here.