The dioramas in the Jill and Lewis Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals have always been splendid, but after more than a year of painstaking restoration, they look better than ever. A multi-video series, now on the Museum's YouTube channel, documents their renovation.
In this post, the second in a series, we share one of the videos, which explores how Museum conservators re-created a lifelike blue-echo butterfly in the foreground of the coyote diorama.
Set in Yosemite Valley, California, the diorama features a rhododendron bush and flowers called butterfly mariposa lilies (Calochortus venustus); the newly created butterfly now rests on one of the lilies. How did conservators mimic the lovely periwinkle insect?
Visit the fully restored Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals.