Akeley’s African hall
The taxidermist Carl Akeley proposed a hall of African mammals around 1909. Named after him, the two-storey Akeley Hall of African Mammals has 28 dioramas showing the range of Africa’s ecosystems and their animals.
Mammals of Asia
The Hall of Asian Mammals opened in 1930. It has eight complete dioramas, four partial dioramas and six habitat groups from India, Nepal, Burma and Malaysia.
Painting a horizon
After Akeley’s death in 1926, the architectural artist James Perry Wilson joined the work on the backgrounds, developing ways to reduce the distortion of painting a landscape on a curved wall.



