Artful Dioramas of North American Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History

 

The state-of-the-art dioramas in the North American Mammal Hall of the American Museum of Natural History have been fully restored. Many of the dioramas were first created in the 1930s, and new ones have been added. An expert team of conservators and Museum artists led a masterful restoration of the realistic and artful dioramas. The dioramas are based on precise field observations, and depict scenes featuring the moose and brown bears of Alaska, cougars in the Grand Canyon, and the wolves of Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, goats, grizzly bears, among others. The exquisite backdrop paintings were created by prominent artists including Charles Abel Corwin, Hanson Duvall Puthuff, Duncan Alanson Spencer, Florence MacKenzie and Frank J. MacKenzie, and Robert Reid. The restored Hall of North American Mammals reopened October 2012.