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

American Museum of Natural History. Pro-Astronomic Hall.; Pro-Astronomical Hall; Astronomical Exhibit; Pro-Astronomic Hall; Astronomy
birth: 1925
death: 1935
Permanent exhibition. Opened 1925 and closed 1934. Located on Floor 1, West Corridor. The Pro-Astronomic Hall at the American Museum of Natural History was a smaller exhibit hall created for astronomy before the completion of a grander, more comprehensive Astronomy Hall, which became the Hayden Planetarium. The Pro-Astronomic Hall exhibited plans for the Planetarium (1, 1925, p. 24) as well as paintings and illustrations of astronomy subjects (1, 1926, p. 39).
The Pro-Astronomic Hall featured paintings by Howard Russell Butler, including those of the solar eclipses of 1918, 1923, and 1925, solar prominences, the Aurora Borealis, the Approaching Shadow of the Oregon Total Solar Eclipse, A Lunar Landscape, and the Earth as Seen from the Moon. Other exhibits included photographic transparencies showing eclipse phenomena, comets, meteor trails, and photographs of the moon made at the Yerkes Observatory (2, 1928, p. 9; 1, 1926, p. 39). The corridor outside the hall exhibited eight paintings of volcanism by Angelo Heilprin, models of Mt. Pelee, paintings of Aurora Borealis by Leonard Moore Davis, a rotating monthly sky chart, exhibits of compasses and sundials, and time-measuring instruments (1, 1926, p. 39; 1, 1927, p. 38; 2, 1931, p. 39).