Now available: American Museum of Natural History (04 . 06 . 2014)
Artstor Digital Library and the American Museum of Natural History
have released 1,700 images of objects from the Museum's Division of
Anthropology and historical photographs from the Research Library's
Photo Archive.
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural
institutions. Since its foundation in 1869, the Museum has advanced its
global mission to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about
human cultures, the natural world, and the universe through a
wide-ranging program of scientific research, education, and exhibition.
Established in 1873, the AMNH's Division of Anthropology holds more
than 500,000 objects representing the peoples of the Americas, Africa,
Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands. The Division is concerned with
all aspects of human behavior, past, present, and with an eye to the
future. Its work is biological, socio-cultural, archeological, and
linguistic. As one of the oldest departments of anthropology in the
United States, its collections and archives are important resources for
the history and continuing work of the discipline.
The selection of photographs from the AMNH's Research Library
illustrates how the staff presented natural science to the New York City
public and the reactions of that public, particularly the school
children. The pictures, documenting dinosaurs to fashion history, also
tell a story about the people of New York City as the twentieth century
emerged. The Research Library now manages the historical photographs and
is following in the tradition of the lantern slide lending library and
school study collections to make the museum's history and visual
resources widely available for the people, for science, and for
education.
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