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

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of the Age of Man.; Quaternary Hall; Fossil Mammals (Mastodons); Mastodons and Mammoths; Hall of Mastodons and Mammoths; Pleistocene Mammal Hall; Hall of Fossil Mammals; Hall of the Age of Man; Age of Man Hall; Early Man, Mastodons and Mammoths; Age of Man; Early Man, Mastodons and Mammals; Osborn Hall of the Age of Man; Early Man, Mastodons and Mammoths (Osborn Hall of the Age of Man); Hall of Age of Man; Fifth Fossil Hall -- Age of Man; Fifth Fossil Hall -- Ice Age Mammals; Ice Age Mammals; Hall of Ice Age Mammals
birth: 1911
death: approximately 1965-1966
Permanent exhibition. Opened 1911 and closed approximately 1965-1966. Located on Floor 4, Section 2. The Hall of the Age of Man at the American Museum of Natural History exhibited ice age mammals contemporary with early man as well as fossil hominids. The hall featured mural paintings by Charles R. Knight (1, 1918, p. 43). Curators for the hall included William K. Gregory, George Pinkley, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Walter Granger, J. Howard McGregor; and Christine D. Matthew served as research assistant (1, 1938, p. 15; 1, 1918, p. 83).
The Hall of the Age of Man featured mammoths and mastodons, including the Warren Mastodon, Woolly and Jefferson Mammoths; Toxodon, Macrauchenia, Glyptodon, Megaloceros (Irish deer); the Ground Sloth Group; the Rancho La Brea Group; saber-toothed tigers; skeletons of modern horses, which later became the exhibit, the Horse Under Domestication; and the Races of Man exhibit, which featured skulls of Neanderthal, Gibraltar Chapelle aux Saints, Spy, and Piltdown men. Skeletons of modern elephants, including that of Jumbo, were shown for comparison to mammoths and mastodons. Charles R. Knight's murals depicted life-like scenes featuring the mammals on exhibit in the hall (2, 1911, p. 74-76; 2, 1913, p. 90; 2, 1919, p. 100-101; 2, 1939, p. 51-53; 2, 1953, p. 74). Between 1915 and 1917 the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton was temporarily installed in this hall for lack of space in the Dinosaur Hall (1, 1915, p. 72; 1, 1917, p. 87-88). Exhibits of the Family Tree of Man, Comparative Anatomy of Man and Anthropoids, and Why Man Walks Upright were installed in the hall in 1924 and may have been transferred to the Hall of the Natural History of Man, which opened in 1932 (1,1924, p. 98-99; 2, 1934, p. 103-105). Specimens may have moved between the Hall of the Age of Man and the Hall of Late Mammals during hall revisions. After the closure of the hall, many of its specimens were transferred to the Hall of Late Mammals (3, 1972, p. 70).