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

American Museum of Natural History. Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall of New York State Environment.; American Museum of Natural History. Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall.; Felix M. Warburg Hall; Man and Nature (Warburg Memorial); Warburg Memorial Hall of Man and Nature; Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall (Man and Nature); Warburg Hall of New York State Environment; Landscape Hall; Warburg Hall of Ecology
birth: 1951
death: present
Permanent exhibition. Opened 1951. Located on the First Floor, Section 3. Planning and construction began in 1948 along with the Hall of North American Forests and a planned but never completed Botany Hall (1, 1948-1949, p. 10). The Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall of New York State Environment at the American Museum of Natural History covers humans’ relationship to nature, using nearby Dutchess County as a study. The hall was dedicated in memory of Trustee Frederick “Felix” Warburg (1, 1949-1950, p. 5). Farida A. Wiley of the Department of Public Instruction was consulted on the hall’s development (1, 1955-1956, p. 27).
The Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall of New York State Environment was created as part of a “new approach” (1, 1949-1950, p. 4) to the study and man and the environment. The Museum promoted the study of natural history—the study of life and the world around us—as to essential to educating citizens in a democracy to survive “ever threatening totalitarian ‘isms” in the post-World War II world (1, 1949-1950, p. 4). Part of this mission was sought in its new Landscape Hall, which aims to show the relationship between humans and their environment, how nature influences human activities, and how nature is modified by human activities (1, 1957-1958, p. 10).
Designed for children, particularly urban children whose contact with nature was considered limited, the hall focuses on Pine Plains and Stissing Mountain in Dutchess County, areas with mountains, lakes, forests, rock formations, and both wild and cultivated land. The hall’s exhibits illustrate changes in the landscape from Precambrian times, seasonal and natural cycles, plant and animal life, topographical maps, agriculture and local ecology, and dioramas showing forest and wetland ecosystems (1, 1949-1950, p. 4; 2). The exhibits include or have included the following:
An October Afternoon Near Stissing Mountain (diorama)
Bird’s-Eye View of Stissing Mountain and Village of Pine Plains (relief map)
Geological History and Structure
Glaciation
The Water Cycle
Soils and Soil Conservation
Life in the Soil
Roots in the Soil
The Relation of Plants to Geology and Soil
Rotation of Farm Crops in Dutchess County, N.Y.
The Apple Orchard in Dutchess County, N.Y.
Fertilizers in the Soil
Cycle of Nutrition and Decay
Life in the Water
From Field to Lake (diorama)
Seasons in the Lake
Seasons in the Woods
The Changing Forests
Man and the Land
Records of Time
Agriculture (3, 1953, p. 207-215; 4)