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

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Late Mammals.; Hall of Fossil Mammals; Fossil Mammals; East Mammal Hall; Tertiary Mammal Hall; Fossil Mammal Hall; Tertiary Hall; Fossil Mammals (Horses, Camels, etc.); Fossil Mammals of the Tertiary Period; Mammals of the Tertiary Period; Hall of the Age of Mammals; Age of Mammals; Osborn Hall; Age of Mammals Hall; Osborn Hall of Tertiary Mammals; Osborn Hall of the Age of Mammals; Mammals of the Tertiary Period (Osborn Hall of the Age of Mammals); Fourth Fossil Hall -- Mammals; Fourth Fossil Hall -- Age of Mammals; Osborn Memorial; Late Mammals; Hall of Late Mammals; Osborn Memorial Hall of Late Mammals; Osborn Hall of Late Mammals; Osborn Hall of Late Prehistoric Mammals; Osborn Hall of Fossil Mammals; Osborn Hall of Late Fossil Mammals; Hall of Fossil Vertebrates
birth: 1902
death: 1991
Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1902 and closed 1990-1991. Located on Floor 4, Section 3. The Hall of Late Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History exhibited fossil mammals from many periods, including specimens collected by the Third Asiatic Expedition (1, 1923, p. 32). In 1904 it was the Museum's only fossil mammal hall, but by 1911 it exhibited Tertiary mammals and the later fossil mammals moved into the Hall of the Age of Man (2, 1904, p. 13; 2, 1911, p. 77). After the closure of the Age of Man Hall and the opening of the Hall of Early Mammals in the 1950s and 1960s, the Hall of Late Mammals exhibited more advanced fossil mammals such as those formerly in the Age of Man Hall (2, 1962, p. 37). Exhibits were periodically modified over many years, and the hall was rearranged in the 1930s and 1940s, between 1971 and 1973, and again in 1988-1989 with assistance from exhibition coordinator Lowell Dingus (1, 1932, p. 60; 1, 1971/72 p. 31; 1, 1972/73, p. 8; AR 1988-1989 p. 38). Curators for the hall included Edwin H. Colbert, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Walter Granger (1, 1933, p. 6: 1, 1937, p. 12; 1, 1941, p. 9).
The Hall of Late Mammals, along with contemporary and later fossil mammal halls, had its origins in the original fourth floor fossil exhibits from the Museum's 1877 building, which included dinosaurs. The hall, initially the Hall of Fossil Vertebrates, even exhibited a small collection of dinosaurs before the fossil reptiles were transferred to their own hall. By 1903 the hall, now named the Fossil Mammal Hall exhibited the Frick Collection, including primitive hoofed mammals, mastodons, elephants, carnivores, and even-toed hoofed mammals, and the Evolution of the Horse (3, 1902; 2, 1904, p. 13; 1, 1987/88, p. 49). By 1911, the new Quaternary Mammal Hall, later named the Age of Man Hall, opened and the mastodons, mammoths, and other advanced mammals were moved there. The Fossil Mammals of the Tertiary Period, as the Hall of Late Mammals was then known, exhibited fossil camels and giraffes; giant pigs and pygmy hippopotamus; ancestors of the rhinoceros; primitive dogs and cats, including the saber-toothed tiger; titanotheres and uintatheres; and the Evolution of the Horse, which included the skeleton of Eohippus, and paintings and models by Charles R. Knight (2, 1911, p. 74-80). By 1919, fossil primates, rodents, and marsupials were added (2, 1919, p. 106).
Specimens may have moved between the Hall of the Age of Man and the Hall of Late Mammals during hall revisions. Some specimens from the Late Mammals Hall, such as the Toxodon, Glyptodon, Macrauchenia, Uintatherium, and giant sloths appear in the Hall of Early Mammals in the 1950s. The mammoths and mastodons moved to the Hall of Late Mammals following the closure of the Hall of the Age of Man in the 1960s (2, 1953, p. 64-67; 4, 1967). In the early 1990s the Halls of Early and Late Mammals were closed to make way for the Hall of Primitive Mammals and the Paul and Irma Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals (1, 1990/91 p. 1). Many of the same fossil exhibits from the previous halls can be viewed in the current halls.