American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Small Mammals.

Exist Dates

1963 - present

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Permanent exhibition. Opened December 18, 1963. Located on Floor 1, Section 13a. The Hall of Small Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History, which is a branch of the larger Hall of North American Mammals, presents a variety of animals in small dioramas depicting their natural habitats, from the Canadian tundra to the brush country of southern Texas. Background artists for the dioramas were James Perry Wilson and Matthew Kalmenoff; foreground artists were Tomas Newbery, Freidoun Jalayer, Raymond deLucia, and George Peterson; taxidermists were David J. Schwendeman, Jonas Bros. Inc., Denver, and James Hagenmayer Studio (1; 2, 2006, p. 168-169).

The Hall of Small Mammals was created as a part of a 10-year exhibition program approved by the Board of Trustees in 1959, which aimed to take advantage of new techniques and data and to update old halls and create new ones (3, 1968/69, p. 10). Each window in the hall reveals one or more mammals in a detailed natural setting at a particular season and time of day. Descriptions of such key characteristics as behavior, typical diet, and reproductive traits are included for each species (1).

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the habitat groups depicted the nine-banded armadillo, black-footed ferret, prairie dog, common woodchuck, peccary, flying squirrel, Kaibab squirrel, weasel, marten, kit fox, badger, kangaroo rat, mink, wolverine, muskrat in such habitats as the Northern Rockies, Northern Arizona forest, Crater Lake in Oregon, Grand Tetons in Wyoming, Louisiana marshes, Canadian tundra, Death Valley, California, Mount Katahdin, Maine (4, 1972, p. 108-109; 5).

As of 2017, the full list of dioramas in the corridor is as follows:

Black-footed Ferret, Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

River Otter in Ontario Canada

Nine-banded Armadillo, Rio Grande, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

Groundhog (Common Woodchuck), Cohocton, New York

Northern Flying Squirrel, Trapper Peak, Bitteroot National Forest, Montana

Collared Peccary, Chihuahua Desert, Big Bend National Park, Texas

American (Pine) Marten, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Ermine and Vole, Baxter State Park, Maine

Wolverine, near Ennadai Lake, Nunavut, Canada

Abert’s (Kaibab) Squirrel, Kaibab National Forest, Arizona

American Badger, Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

American Mink, Pine Barrens, New Jersey (6)

Sources

(1) American Museum of Natural History. “Hall of Small Mammals," accessed September 27, 2016, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/mammal-halls/hall-of-small-mammals.

(2) Quinn, Stephen C. Windows on Nature: the Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History. New York: Abrams; New York: American Museum of Natural History, 2006.

(3) American Museum of Natural History. Annual Reports. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1968/69.

(4) American Museum of Natural History, The American Museum of Natural History: An Introduction. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1972.

(5) American Museum of Natural History. The American Museum of Natural History: A Pictorial Guide. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1967.

(6) Hall of Small Mammals. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY. March 3, 2017.

Information for the hall appears in the following Museum publications:

American Museum of Natural History Annual Reports for years 1961 (page 4, 38); 1962 (page 39, 65); 1963 (page 46); 1968 (page 10); 1975 (page 31)

American Museum of Natural History Pictorial Guide 1967.

American Museum of Natural History: An Introduction 1972, page 5, 8, 108.

American Museum of Natural History Official Guide 2001, page 60.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals
The Hall of Small Mammals is a related hall and branch of the Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals.

DeLucia, Raymond H.
Diorama foreground artist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Jalayer, Freidoun
Diorama foreground artist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

James Hagenmayer Studio
Diorama taxidermist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Jonas Brothers, Inc., Denver
Diorama taxidermist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Kalmenoff, Matthew
Diorama background artist (5, 2006, p. 168).

Newbery, Tomas Horacio, 1928-
Diorama foreground artist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Petersen, George E.
Diorama foreground artist (2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Schwendeman, David
Diorama taxidermist(2, 2006, p. 168-169).

Related Resources

subjectOf

Historic Halls of the American Museum of Natural History
Curated digital images of permanent halls in the American Museum of Natural History Library, Digital Special Collections.

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