Exist Dates
1930 - present
Biographical or Historical Note
- abstract
- Permanent exhibition. Opened November 17, 1930. Located on Floor 2, Section 9. The Hall of Asian Mammals at the American Museum
of Natural History exhibits large mammals from India, Myanmar, and Thailand in a dozen habitat groups and, similar to the
Hall of African Mammals, a group of freestanding elephants as the hall's centerpiece. The hall was rearranged between 1950
and 1951 (1, 1950/51, p. 35.) Expeditions that contributed to the hall included the Asiatic Zoological Expedition of the American
Museum of Natural History (1st: 1916-1917), the Asiatic Zoological Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (2nd:
1918-1919), the Faunthorpe-Vernay Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1922-1923), and the Vernay Faunthorpe
Expedition (1926-1929) (1, 1917 p. 29; 1, 1922 p. 95). The Asiatic Zoological Expeditions were led by Roy Chapman Andrews
and included Yvette Borup Andrews, Edmund Heller, and Harry R. Caldwell. J.C. Faunthorpe and Arthur S. Vernay funded and led
their eponymous expeditions, and Museum artists Albert E. Butler and Clarence C. Rosenkranz joined them to conduct field studies
(1, 1927, p. 74-75). The curator for the hall was Harold E. Anthony (1, 1957/58 p. 19). Artists for the hall's design and
habitat groups were Albert E. Butler, James L. Clark, Walter Esherich, Arthur Jansson, Francis Lee Jaques, Louis Paul Jonas,
John W. Hope, William R. Leigh, Robert Rockwell, and Clarence C. Rosenkranz (2, 2006, p. 169).
Plans for an Asiatic Hall appear in the 1911 Annual Report (1, 1911, p. 22). The South Asiatic Mammal Hall, as the hall was
then known, was planned in conjunction with the North Asiatic Mammal Hall. After many expeditions to collect specimens, construction
began in 1925 (1, 1924, p. 91-92; 1, 1925, p. 29) and the hall opened on November 17, 1930. The design of the hall features
ornamentation suggestive of Asia, including bamboo designs on the windows. Between 1950 and 1951 the hall was rearranged,
but the habitat groups remained the same (1, 1950/51, p. 35).
Many of the animals represented in the Hall of Asian Mammals are threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. The giant panda
and Siberian tiger from its former companion hall, the North Asiatic Hall, are featured in the endangered species case in
the Hall of Biodiversity as of 2017 (3).
The mammal groups in the hall include dioramas, cases, and the freestanding Asian Elephants. The full dioramas are:
Banting
Gaur
Indian Rhinoceros
Leopard
Sambar and Swamp Deer
Tiger
Water Buffalo
The habitat groups in cases with two-sides of background are:
Black Buck and Chinkara
Chital or Axis Deer
Hoolock Gibbon
Thamin or Eld's Deer
Habitat groups without backgrounds are:
Sumatran Rhinoceros
Sloth Bear
Hog Deer and Indian Wild Boar
Muntjac and Spotted Chevrotain
Four-horned Antelope and Indian Smooth Otter
Indian Lion (2, 2006, p. 169; 4)
Sources
(1) American Museum of Natural History. Annual Reports. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1911-1957/58.
(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. "Hall of Asian Mammals," accessed June 23, 2017, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/mammal-halls/hall-of-asian-mammals.
(4) Hall of Asian Mammals. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY. June 23, 2017.
Information for the hall appears in the following Museum publications:
American Museum of Natural History Annual Reports for years: 1911 (page 22); 1916 (page 21); 1917 (page 29); 1919 (page 18);
1920 (page 19); 1922 (page 95, 97); 1923 (page 25, 120); 1924 (page 11, 12, 91); 1925 (page 18, 29); 1926 (page 13, 25, 77);
1927 (page 15, 74, 141); 1928 (page 19, 22, 51); 1929 (page 9, 72); 1930 (page 38, 39, 41, 46); 1931 (page 10); 1933 (page
6); 1949 (page [14]); 1950 (page 35); 1957 (page 19); 1971 (page 13); 1972 (page 38); 1976 (page 31); 1984 (page 52); 1986
(page 53); 1988 (page 7); 1993 (page 71); 1998 (page 83); 2010 (page 76)
American Museum of Natural History General Guides for years: 1931 (page 66); 1932 (page 66); 1933 (page 68); 1934 (page 69);
1935 (page 69); 1936 (page 69); 1939 (page 17, 99, 103); 1943 (page 17, 111, 107); 1945 (page 17, 111, 107); 1947 (page 17,
111, 107); 1949 (page 17, 111, 107); 1953 (Floor plans, 140, 141, 145); 1956 (page 145, 151); 1958 (page 147, 153); 1962 (page
12, 43); 1964 (page 12, 43)
American Museum of Natural History Pictorial Guide 1967.
American Museum of Natural History: An Introduction 1972, page 109.
American Museum of Natural History Official Guides for years: 1984 (page 33); 1993 (page 22, 50); 2001 (Table of Contents,
28, 61)
Terms
- place
- New York
AMNH: Floor 2, Section 9.
