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

Ellen V. Futter Gallery.; American Museum of Natural History. Grand Gallery.; Memorial Hall; Special Exhibits; 77th Street Foyer; 77th Street Lobby; 77th Street Entrance
birth: 1888
death: present
Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1888. Located on Floor 1, Section 2. The Ellen V. Futter Gallery, renamed in 2023 (formerly Grand Gallery) at the American Museum of Natural History, located just off the 77th Street entrance, is one of the most iconic public spaces in the Museum. The Gallery has been home to many temporary exhibits, including horticultural shows, meteorites, and specimens from various expeditions and has hosted the Great Canoe associated with the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians since 1960 (1. 1962, p. 15; 2, 1960/61, p. 25; 3). As part of a larger project concerning the Museum's historic south side, it underwent restoration in 2007 (2, 2007, p. 4).
The Ellen V. Futter Gallery was historically known as Memorial Hall and is more commonly referred to as the 77th Street Foyer or Lobby. In addition to numerous temporary exhibits, the hall has also hosted many other, more permanent installations, some of which are no longer on display or have moved to different halls. The Museum installed in the gallery a marble statue by William Couper of Museum President Morris K. Jesup, following his death in 1908 (2, 1908, p. 17). In addition to the statue of Jesup, the hall also featured marble busts in niches, which included those of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander von Humboldt, Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, John James Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, James Dwight Dana, John Torrey, Edward Drinker Cope, Joseph Leidy, and Robert Peary (1, 1914, p. 21). In the early twentieth century, the Foyer also exhibited a model of the solar system suspended from the ceiling as well as the Ahnighito and Willamette meteorites which are on exhibit in the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, respectively, as of 2017 (1, 1911, p. 13-14). The hall was also once home to the Museum's Junior Shop (1, 1962, p. 15).
In 1960, the Great Canoe, with figures of Chilkat Indians, moved from the Hall of Northwest Coast Indians to the 77th Street Foyer where it was installed in the center of the floor (2, 1960/61, p. 25; 4). In 2007, the Canoe underwent conservation, restoration, and reinstallation on the ceiling as part of a restoration project that included the Gallery, the 77th Street façade, and the installation of the new Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins (1, 200,7 p. 4).