Talk:American Museum of Natural History

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Merge[edit]

You know, I'm just going to do it. Melchoir 23:13, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Endowment Size[edit]

Anyone know how large the ANMH's endowment is? I hear rumors about it being the largest of any natural history museum. --68.35.229.27 02:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]


in 2007, amnh endowment was $575million, they were also able to raise at least $700million in fundraising in a 2008 campaign. according to standard and poors. http://www.alacrastore.com/research/s-and-p-credit-research-Summary_New_York_City_Trust_For_Cultural_Resources_American_Museum_Of_Natural_History_Non_Profit_Organizations-633382
the article should have a mention on endowment size, and at least some mention of its recent renovations to some of their gallery halls. I would also like to see mention of their research facilities, and also info on acquisitions and deaccessions Lucky dog (talk) 01:03, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
you can see the amnh's annual report and financial statements here: http://www.amnh.org/about/

ViniTheHat (talk) 01:23, 17 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Co-Founder?[edit]

It states in the article that Theodore Roosevelt Sr. was co-founder of the museum...so who else was involved in the founding of the museum? Irish♣Pearl 19:39, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Now all 21 founders are listed. Explainer (talk) 16:33, 30 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Museum Info Box[edit]

I added what information I knew in the infobox. Does anyone else have anything to contribute? SluggerBugger (talk) 05:25, 31 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

the image in the infobox is of the original main entrance. this is no longer the main "face" of the building. Also, that entrance has since been renovated. Would anyone mind if I switched it to an image of the current main entrance on CPW?ViniTheHat (talk) 05:41, 9 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not at all, that would be beneficial. Crimsonraptor (talk) 22:28, 15 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
will do... soon. ViniTheHat (talk) 06:00, 16 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I know how you feel by "soon"...member of 11 seperate wikis, admin on 2, founder on 1...Crimsonraptor (talk) 23:23, 16 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ta-da! I've (finally) gotten around to changing it. Crimsonraptor (talk) 14:45, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

awesome, thanks! Now, when they're done with the current restorations, it'll have to get done again!ViniTheHat (talk) 14:34, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Restorations? They're changing the entrance? Crimsonraptor (talk) 16:35, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I dont think theyre changing much externally. But right now the CPW entrance is covered w/ scaffolding. They're going to renovate the ticket lobby and the hall of North American Mammals. ViniTheHat (talk) 17:24, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Huh. NA Mammals looked fine to me. Crimsonraptor (talk) 18:02, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
They need to update the lighting in the dioramas, the current lights are bleaching the hair on some of the animals. ViniTheHat (talk) 18:05, 20 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedian Meetup at AMNH[edit]

Please check out Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC. Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 07:06, 4 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Hall of Minerals[edit]

The section of this article pertaining to the hall of minerals is 2/3rds about the star of India saphire and only contains about 3 sentances about the actual section of the museum —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.206.69.55 (talk) 12:12, 26 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Adding Sources[edit]

If you add a new source, please check the page first to see if it's already been cited, and if so please use inline citations to keep the references list tidy.Goldoro99 (talk) 16:27, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some text copied from AMNH website[edit]

Some of the text here has been copied from the AMNH website. Specifically, the library section is largely based on this, with much of it verbatim copying. I'm am starting an article on the library itself, and I will be using different wording, but the whole article needs checking for stuff like this, unless there is some reason that using text from the AMNH website is OK (I would say probably not). Carcharoth (talk) 21:40, 1 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Addition to "Popular Culture"?[edit]

Just saw Night at the Museum, and noticed that the museum looks very much like the "Bloomsberry Museum" in Curious George (film), so I suppose that is also based on the AMNH. Not going to be so bold as to add that, though, since my only source here is the "original research" of noticing the similarity for myself. (Or could one call the actual Curious George DVD the source here?) Anyway, just a heads-up for someone else to add or reject.--CRConrad (talk) 01:11, 10 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article cleanup[edit]

This article needs a bit of looking at. The history section's fine, but the selection of halls is confusing. Why have a 10-line entry on the Hall of Human Origins, but hardly a smidgen on the Hall of Ocean Life, African Mammals, or even the highly notable Butterfly Conservatory? I'd suggest looking over the Academy of Natural Sciences article for departments and such. In a few days I'll start adding to the exhibition list, so let me know what you think of how the article is (or any additional changes you might consider). Crimsonraptor (talk) 20:40, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There, got the Hall of Ocean Life in there. Hopefully this should be the first of many. Crimsonraptor (talk) 22:39, 2 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, and by the way, about the diorama section---it seems that a lot of halls are smudged in here because they consist of almost entirely dioramas themselves. These halls can still have their own bits, and the diorama section should probably just focus on diorama history or just single ones from each hall. I'd greatly appreciate feedback on this, so any agreements/disagreements can be added and then I can avoid slashing through an article that can really shine someday. I'll wait for a response (because it seems people haven't been looking in here for a while...hence the January above this October). Crimsonraptor (talk) 22:05, 7 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hello? Anybody? Crimsonraptor (talk) 22:26, 15 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ghost town article. I guess I'll go ahead and make edits. Crimsonraptor (talk) 15:37, 5 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Velociraptor vs. Protoceratops[edit]

How come the article doesn't say anything about the Velociraptor vs. Protoceratops fossil?

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/fightingdinos/ex-fd.html

24.147.205.155 (talk) 20:55, 26 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That was a temporary exhibition when this fossil was on tour. It's not part of the museum collection. MMartyniuk (talk) 01:01, 28 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oops. Sorry about that. 24.147.205.155 (talk) 19:22, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Page Re-organizations[edit]

I've been working on completing the list of exhibition halls. Tomorrow I'm making another trip to the museum with the hopes of adding Warburg Hall, Hall of North American Forests, and Hall of South American Indians. At that point I think having all the halls under one heading will be a bit unwieldy, so I'd like to re-organize the exhibition hall section by subject. I'll do my best to go by the museum's classifications, making sections such as "Halls of Biodiversity", "Cultural Halls", etc (this is how the museum's website characterizes them). If there are no objections by the time I'm ready to edit the page again, I'll go ahead with the re-organizing. (NComparato (talk) 00:54, 4 May 2014 (UTC))[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Article size[edit]

Maybe the article should be split into several pages: one article about the museum as a whole, and one or more about its halls. It's very long and difficult to navigate right now. epicgenius (talk) 04:35, 16 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been built by too many avid fans who think every statue and rock need to be listed. --Animalparty! (talk) 21:11, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Are all these timelines really necessary?[edit]

This article, already very cluttered looking, has 4 "timelines": "Life timeline", "Nature timeline", "Human timeline" and last (but not least) a time line for the AMNH itself. While generally informative, the first three timelines are not directly related to the subject of the article insofar as they are not apparently part of the exhibitions at AMNH, nor is there evidence that AMNH has specimens related to each of the elements listed. The elements of the timeline for the AMNH could really be covered in a few short sentences in the body of the article, and I see no need for their presentation in the form of a timeline. Unless there is strenuous disagreement, I think the article would be improved by their removal. Thanks for your attention. Akhooha (talk) 00:55, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Akhooha: Thank you for your comments - yes imo the "Human timeline", "Life timeline", "Nature timeline" seem to be an improvement, in terms of overall perspective and context, to the "American Museum of Natural History" article - hope this helps in some way - in any case - Thanks again for your comments - and - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 18:20, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your input, Drbogdan. I am leaving the human, nature, and life timelines in place, but I have removed the AMNH timeline for reasons stated above. I am assuming you have no objections to its removal. Thank you again for your quick reply. Akhooha (talk) 19:02, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
@Akhooha: Thank for your recent post - yes - agreed - no problem whatsoever removing the AMNH timeline if you like - hope this helps - Thanks again - and - Enjoy! :) Drbogdan (talk) 19:47, 22 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Templates "About", "Redirect", "Distinguish", "Confused"[edit]

The article suffers of a clear misuse of templates:

  • The "About" template 'This article is about the museum in New York City. For the museum in Washington, D.C., see National Museum of Natural History'... is de facto the same as the "Distinguish" template 'Not to be confused with the National Museum of American History'.
  • The "Redirect" template '"Manhattan Square" redirects here. For the residential skyscraper, see One Manhattan Square.'... is de facto the same as the "Distinguish" template 'Not to be confused with One Manhattan Square'.

On top of the above, the "Confused" template is only added after the "museum" infobox. All of this is very irregular and chaotic. Thus, I left only the templates that appear to be really necessary. I left the two affected templates in the code text, but above the infobox. Regards. Kintaro (talk) 12:47, 12 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I just noticed my mistake in connection with the National Museum of American History. I just fixed it, now all is ok. Kintaro (talk) 12:59, 12 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Measure of Size[edit]

By what measure is the AMNH the largest natural history museum in the world? It's not by number of specimens in it's collections, because the AMNH website lists its collection size as being just over 34 million, while the Smithsonian website lists the National Museum of Natural History's collections as containing over 145 million specimens. https://www.amnh.org/shelf-life/discoveries-in-dioramas https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/collections-national-museum-natural-history It might be the largest by floor space, because it does have more floor space than the National Museum of Natural History, but we'd need information about how it compares in that respect to other natural history museums or better yet a citation from a credible source comparing it to other natural history museums. If it is the largest by some metric, building volume, floor space, etc, we should specify. Recognize North (talk) 21:04, 22 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect photo identification[edit]

The photo tagged as "Carl Akeley mounts specimens for the "Lions" diorama". is actually of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardello_Dano_Christensen

I came across this while researching an article I wrote ( https://medium.com/family-and-love/gardell-dano-christensen-8bb19cf9c0f5 ) about Gardell. I suspected that your attribution was incorrect because I met Gardell when I was a child and remembered his face.

I also have spoken recently with his son Dano and his daughter Yahna, who both confirmed that their father is in the picture.

This same picture is at Photobucket, identified as “Christensen and James L. Clark.” https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/taxidermy-mounts-for-the-african-lion-diorama-gardell-christensen-and-james-l-clark/1AEWknYl1Y_sqQ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 100.17.9.92 (talk) 09:25, 24 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

₩♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥™™™™™™™™™™™ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.214.51.22 (talk) 10:08, 3 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Team-B-Vital Improvement Drive[edit]

Hello all!

This article has been chosen as this fortnight's effort for WP:Discord's #team-b-vital channel, a collaborative effort to bring Vital articles up to a B class if possible, similar to WP:Articles for Improvement. This effort will run for up to a fortnight, ending early if the article is felt to be at B-class or impossible to further improve. Articles are chosen by a quick vote among interested chatters, with the goal of working together on interesting Vital articles that need improving.

Thank you! Remagoxer (talk) 22:09, 3 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Science class 5[edit]

The skeleton belongs to American museum of natural history 103.183.244.187 (talk) 06:01, 14 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Curatorial Subdivision Sections?[edit]

Whereas it is undoubtedly helpful to provide detailed descriptions of the galleries, this public-centered view seems out of line with the AMNH's mandate to support research. As one of the top research museums in the world, it might be helpful to add a section that lists the various curatorial divisions, and describes the collections contained therein. This would also help align the article's content with comparable ones on other natural science and art museums of similar scope and importance. Coryannyyz (talk) 18:50, 16 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Coryannyyz: The AMNHs "mandate" is not mentioned in the article, so you're in fact expecting the article to be more of something that isn't even mentioned. And unless this "mandate" specifically states "50% public-centered and 50% research", then Wikipedia can do whatever it wants to make the article encyclopedic for its readers, and not appear WP:UNDUE. There's a whole section in the article entitled "Research activities"; if you feel it should be expanded, please do. Finally, unless the "mandate" of ever other natural science and art museum is identical to the AMNHs, then it is unreasonable to expect every Wikipedia article about museum to have exactly the same balance or topics. Please be aware that a consensus of editors have already agreed on a guideline for museums at WP:Museum. Magnolia677 (talk) 23:41, 16 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for providing feedback to my suggestion and for directing me to the guideline for museums agreed upon by the Museums working group. This will be very useful for any work that I or my students do on Wikipedia. Re this article, I will review the existing Research Activities section to see if it will accommodate a discussion of the curatorial divisions within the AMNH. Coryannyyz (talk) 19:55, 20 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Magnolia677 I have reviewed both the WP:Museum guideline and the AMNH article to see where, if anywhere, one could or should discuss the collections in more depth. I see that description of collections is included in the guidelines under the section called "Design and Layout" - "Interior and Contents." To fit with the way this article is organized, I think it would work best to expand some of the sections about the exhibit halls to include discussion of the collections and curatorial teams that support them. Would this be an acceptable edit in your view? Coryannyyz (talk) 16:24, 21 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Coryannyyz: Sounds like a good plan. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 17:38, 21 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Magnolia677 The "mandate" I was referring to is the mission statement given in the lead section of the article. This is not really important to how I would like to improve this already very good article, but it seemed a good starting point. Now, thanks to your feedback, I plan to add content and sources to some of the exhibit hall sections that deal with the archaeology and ethnology collections of the museum. I began in my sandbox with the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples, which can be viewed here: User:Coryannyyz/sandbox. I would be very grateful if you or anyone else would like to provide feedback on the tone and content of my edits. I'm particularly uncertain whether it is OK to replace a photo that was in this section. There was nothing wrong with the original photo, but the one I have provides more visual information relevant to the article. Coryannyyz (talk) 00:31, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Editing Anthropology Hall Sections[edit]

I am working on several of the sections that describe the anthropology exhibits at AMNH. I published my first edited section, Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples. I am a new editor to Wikipedia, and I welcome feedback. Coryannyyz (talk) 14:40, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Science and colonialism[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 January 2023 and 24 March 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Pictile (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Pictile (talk) 20:48, 27 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Article size, again[edit]

@MaterialWorks: I noticed that you reverted my removal of the {{Very long}} tag. I acknowledge that you're aware of WP:SIZERULE (and that is what I meant to refer to in my edit summary, rather than WP:RPS). However, please note what the guideline also says: > 9,000 words / > 60 kB; Probably should be divided, although the scope of a topic can sometimes justify the added reading material. Per Template:Very long/doc, you were also required to open a discussion here when placing the tag, but did not do so.

This article currently has 57 kB of readable prose size and is a vital article, so arguably this is a topic for which the added reading material is justified. Hence, I have reverted back your edit. I'll admit that the article was overly detailed prior to last year (see Talk:American Museum of Natural History#Article size), but some of us trimmed many of the irrelevant details as part of the Team-B-Vital Improvement Drive last June. Epicgenius (talk) 23:32, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, upon further consideration, I think that the article will almost definitely need some splitting/pruning by the time I am done with the history section, which is not even a quarter complete. – Epicgenius (talk) 20:42, 21 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

In popular culture[edit]

I just removed most of this section, as it was poorly sourced and was acting as a cruft magnet. Anyone is free to add these entries back, provided they add a reliable secondary source and these entries aren't merely namedropping the museum, per MOS:POPCULT. – Epicgenius (talk) 23:47, 14 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Level Mountain caribou[edit]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but would it be possible to get a picture of the Level Mountain caribou? It's on the American Museum of Natural History website here. Volcanoguy 12:12, 21 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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