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apollonaut. Built by People Who've Been

Journal / History

History, science & heritage

A museum of the natural world
beside Central Park.

The story of the American Museum of Natural History, from a room in Central Park’s Arsenal to a campus of 21 buildings.

A turreted stone wing of the American Museum of Natural History lit up at night
A wing of the museum lit up at night.

An idea of 1861

The naturalist Albert S. Bickmore first proposed the museum in 1861. After years of advocacy it opened on 22 May 1871 in the Arsenal in Central Park, and its first purpose-built building, designed by Calvert Vaux and J. Wrey Mould, opened on Manhattan Square on 22 December 1877.

A turreted stone wing of the American Museum of Natural History lit up at night
The Hall of Asian Mammals, with an elephant group and lit dioramas along the walls

Wings, halls and dioramas

J. Cleaveland Cady’s brownstone wings came to stretch 700 feet along West 77th Street. Inside, halls of habitat dioramas were added through the 20th century, among them the Hall of Asian Mammals, opened in 1930, and the Akeley Hall of African Mammals.

Earth, space and new science

The Rose Center for Earth and Space, a glass cube enclosing an 87-foot sphere designed by James Stewart Polshek, was completed in 2000. The Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation opened on 4 May 2023.

The glass cube of the Rose Center for Earth and Space lit blue at dusk, with its great sphere inside

Continue exploring

A diorama of giraffes, zebras and antelope at an African water holeWindows on the wildThe habitat dioramas.A Stegosaurus skeleton in a bright fossil hallWhat to see at the museumFossils, halls and space.Plan your visit

The Apollonaut collection

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