The American Museum of Natural History

 
I've dreamed of visiting this museum since I was, like, six. And on Monday I finally had the opportunity to go. I got there right as it opened, walked in, and lived my childhood dream...

I visited the American Museum of Natural History, the museum where I would most like to work someday.

(I took tons of pictures, you guys. It was so hard narrowing down which photos to use in this entry, there are at least 200 more that are just sitting on my phone.)

One very cool thing about the museum is that it has 'suggested' admission, meaning they 'suggest' the price they want you to pay, but you can actually pay whatever you want. In theory, that means that if you're ballsy enough, you can 'suggest' going in for free. My conscience wouldn't allow me to do that... I ended up paying $5.

Just the first room alone was worth paying more.

The museum is very well-organised. As someone who hopes to be an exhibition director someday, I was taking in the layout and design of the exhibits just as much as I was taking in the artefacts themselves. The different halls - i.e. the Hall of Asian Peoples and the Hall of Biodiversity - are laid out in ways that are interesting to walk through. Nearly none are in a straight line, with the exception perhaps of the Hall of African Animals. You really feel like an explorer rounding corners. Despite this, they are easy to navigate.

In my opinion, the best designed hall was the Hall of Asian Peoples. It was one of the last halls I visited (and the museum was so big I had to do it in parts - I took in part of it in the morning and part after lunch and then part after my interview) and it's laid out so the path is sort of an elongated spiral on one side, and then a wavy line beside the spiral to get back through. I'm not explaining it well, but rest assured it was very very cool.

Another exhibit I greatly enjoyed was the geology exhibit.

This one was divided into parts. One part was devoted to the more conventional geology bits - i.e. the rock cycle (Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic rocks) and stuff like the science behind earthquakes and volcanoes. And then another part was a hall filled with gems.

I adored both. Rocks are amazing. Honestly, if I weren't an anthropology major and I had still chosen not to be a history major, I probably would have wanted to be a geologist. I think I spent the longest in this area just because I wanted to see every individual rock specimen. (And there were many.)

Moche tomb replica

Another thing I really enjoyed about the exhibit designs is the music. That's right, music. This was a really cool idea that I think more museums should do. In each cultural area, there was the traditional music of those peoples playing over speakers. So in the Andean area talking about groups like the Moche, the Chimu, and the Inka, they were playing traditional Andean music. In the exhibit on natives of the Pacific Northwest (another very cool exhibit, but then again I have always loved the traditional art of the Tlingit, Haida, and Kwakiutl peoples) they were playing native chants from that region. Even the exhibit on human evolution had a display about the evolution of music where you could select traditional instruments on a screen and make your own tunes - a very interesting way to demonstrate an idea that I honestly never put much thought into.

Again, the best area of the museum for this had to be the Hall of Asian Peoples. Because that continent is so diverse, a quick walk through would allow you to hear the music of Korea, China, Japan, India, and the Middle East all in a matter of minutes. I swear, whoever designed that exhibit deserves a reward.

I also learned quite a bit that I didn't know before. For example, did you know that president Theodore Roosevelt did taxidermy as a hobby? Because I sure as heck didn't.

Even so, I was not able to take it all in. Unfortunately, the entire space area was closed, so I didn't get to visit that, which is a shame because I'm a huge astronomy nerd. But that's okay because it just means I have an excuse to go back!

And I truly cannot wait to go back.
-Nym-