American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Amber: Window to the Past (Exhibition)
birth: 1996 February 10
death: 1996 September 2
Exhibition. Opened February 10, 1996 and closed September 2, 1996. Located in Section 3, Floor 3 in Gallery 3 at the American Museum of Natural History. Amber: Window to the Past displayed amber as both a decorative and cultural object and as a scientific archive of organisms that were trapped in hardened tree resin for millions of years.
Summary
Amber: Window to the Past displayed amber as both a decorative and cultural object, and as a scientific archive of organisms that were trapped in hardened tree resin for millions of years. Bringing together the worlds of science and art, the exhibition examined the dual roles in two sections, Amber in Nature and Amber in Art. The exhibition included 146 fossil specimens and 94 decorative objects carved from amber, curated by David Grimaldi, chairman and associate curator of the Museum's Department of Entomology (1, p. 3; 2, p. 1; 4, p. 25).
In Amber in Nature, a selection of amber from the Dominican Republic and Mexico, dating from 23 to 30 million years ago, was juxtaposed to a life-size re-creation of a grove of trees representing an ancient Dominican amber forest (2, p. 1; 4, p. 36). Also on display were fossils, offering evidence of the plants and animal life that existed in this ancient environment. Amber is one of the few substances that preserves fragments of DNA millions of years old. Specimens of Dominican and Mexican amber were on display from the Museum’s collection, as well as fossils entrapped in 65- to 94-million-year-old-amber from New Jersey (2, p. 1-2).
Highlights from the Amber in Nature section included (1, p. 3; 2, p. 2):
*Small flowers, from an extinct species of Hymenaea tree
*Metalmark butterfly
*Small vertebrates, including a gecko lizard
*Two amblypygids, relatives of the spider
*Tree frog
*Pair of craneflies
*Mantis nymph with three ants
The process of making amber forgeries was also displayed (2, p. 3).
Amber in Art explored the use of amber by many civilizations, from amulets carved during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods to its use in the decorative arts in Europe and Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The centerpiece was the re-creation of the Amber Room, an 18th century chamber installed in the Ekatarininsky Palace, outside St. Petersburg. During the first two months of the exhibition three master artisans from St. Petersburg worked in the exhibition hall, recreating a panel from the lost Amber Room. A gilded bronze and porcelain clock from the original Amber Room and replicas of an inlaid corner-table, two wainscoting panels, and twenty decorative pieces of carved amber were also on display, along with other original objects from the amber collection of the Russian Czars (1, p. 4; 2, p. 4).
Among the many amber objects on view were carved figures and jewelry from Etruscan and Roman Tombs, eighteenth century cruets, a nineteenth century German chest with engraved medallions of amber, an ornate chessboard from the late seventeenth century, and a Chinese "wish-granting" scepter, carved during the eighteenth century (2, p. 4-5).
This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.
The objects were assembled from several prominent collections: American Museum of Natural History's Drummond Collection of Chinese decorative objects; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museo degli Argenti Florence; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Ekaterininsky Palace, St. Petersburg; and the Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen (2, p. 3). The exhibition was supported by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Ross and The Ambrose Monell Foundation, with additional support from Plato Malozemoff, Don H. Nelson, and the National Endowment for the Arts (2, p. 5).
Companion text written by David Grimaldi was published by Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, titled Amber: Window to the Past (3; 4, p. 46). A four-part lecture series was held in March 1996, in conjunction with the exhibition (5). Spotlight Tours were available inside the exhibition (4, p. 51) and special presentations for school groups were held from March through June 1996 (6). A train trip to Europe was organized by Discovery Tours in conjunction with the exhibition. Curator David Grimaldi, accompanied the tour to provide lectures and discussions on the significance of amber in science, art and history (7).