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| The Hall of Late Dinosaurs, circa 1958 |
The Museum of Natural History in New York recently placed their image
collections online. Anybody who grew up in and around the region should recognize this
picture -- AMNH's Late Dinosaur Hall, circa 1958. Generations of schoolkids,
including children of countless immigrants (and a Brooklyn kid named Carl
Sagan) got their first in-person glimpses of dinosaurs in this room. In its own
way, it's a place where history happened.
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| Visitor with allosaur, 1959. Note the contemporary "Guide-a-Phone." |
By 1995 the dinosaur halls were
completely renovated. Instead of being presented chronologically (dinosaurs
living at the same time), they were organized cladistically, in terms of
evolutionary relationships. While specialists prefer the latter, I miss
the old arrangement because it offered an idea of the creatures' living context.
T. Rex used to battle Triceratops, and we saw them displayed together. The new
arrangement is too abstract for most people--and it has too many video screens,
distracting visitors from the fossils themselves.
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| Twins from The Shining with Brontosaurus, 1959 |
© 2014 Nicholas Nicastro
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