Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!
The Second and Third floors►
The American Museum of Natural History first opened in the Central Park Arsenal in 1871. It moved to its present location on Central Park West in 1874. The museum’s mission is “To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.”
I visited on the first day the museum reopened after shutting down for COVID for months. Unencumbered by hordes of tourists, it was the best visit I have ever had here. Tickets were timed and limited in capacity, so I had most exhibits to myself. After enjoying a quiet dinosaur experience on the fourth floor, I began working my way down to the other halls
The second and third floors house the anthropological exhibits. The Cultural Halls examine the cultures of Asia, Africa, North and South America and the Pacific. I spent some time on the third floor in the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples. You can see that post here. This hall seems to have the best lighting. I found it hard to see the exhibits in some of the other halls
There are nine halls in this section of the museum. The exhibits showcase a fraction of the AMNH’s collections. The museum has over 540,000 archaeological artifacts from hundreds of cultures around the world. About 250,000 have been digitally imaged into an online database for research purposes. You could spend a week here and still see only a small percentage of the displays.
AMNH Posts►
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial
- Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples
- Cultural Halls
- Titanosaur!
- Fossil Halls
Location: 200 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
Designation: NRHP
Date designated/established: June 24, 1976
Date of my visit: September 9, 2020
How lucky you are to have access to such collections. We don’t live anywhere near museums of any sort other than local history.
Yes, I am grateful. Growing up in New York City, I kind of took museums like this for granted. I still haven’t been to some famous ones, like the Guggenheim.
We’ve been enjoying trips to museums in Italy recently with the same times and spaced out tickets. I really miss the American Museum of Natural History though! It was just a quick walk from my apartment for years. Yet I never knew that’s when it moved to the UWS! Thank you for a fun visit.
I didn’t miss them so much until Covid made it impossible to visit any. It’s not easy or cheap to get from Jersey burbs to Manhattan, but I need to make more of an effort now that it’s possible to visit. I definitely appreciate places like this more now
No it’s not! We lived in Jersey for a while, I always loved seeing the skyline in a less hectic spot.
I wish I had visited this museum when I visited NY years ago. I did however, enjoy a visit to the Museum of American Indian. Well worth the visit.
My parents really like that one, but I have yet to visit it
I went to the AMNH 3 years ago. I saw all the exhibits except the Hall of Gems. I believe that might’ve been under renovation at the time.
When I went last year, the Hall of Gems was still being redone. That was one of my favorite exhibits when I was a kid.