American Museum of Natural History. Jesup Hall of North American Woods.

Exist Dates

1882 - 1952

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Permanent exhibition. Opened 1882 and closed approximately 1950-1952. Located on Floor 1, Section 3. Shortly after Morris K. Jesup became Museum president in 1881, The Jesup Hall of North American Woods was created as a collection, consisting of nearly 500 specimens, as part of the Economic Botany Department. In 1908, the hall became part of a new Department of Forestry. After Jesup's death, Mary Cynthia Dickerson took over the Forestry Department, and in 1909 the collection was rearranged to "bring out more clearly the classification of trees, their relationship and their economic uses" (1, 2012). Robert Marston was curator after Dickerson's retirement in 1919. By the mid-1940s, plans began for new forestry, botany, and landscape halls. The forestry and landscape halls became the Hall of North American Forests and the Felix M. Warburg Hall of New York State Environment (2, 2011; 1, 2012).

In order to create the Collection of North American Woods, Jesup hired Charles Sargeant to collect and prepare specimens; Jesup also obtained specimens from railroad and logging companies. In 1881, before they were exhibited in the Museum's permanent home between 77th and 81 Streets, the collection was exhibited in the Central Park Arsenal, the Museum's first building for exhibition. The collection was moved to the "Lower Hall" of the new building in 1882 (1, 2012). The 1895 Annual Report states that the Wood Hall opened to the public in the new building, but it is unclear whether the exhibition was merely reorganized or was moved to a space specific to the collection (3, 1895, p. 8-9).

The hall exhibited five-foot-long cross, longitudinal, and oblique sections of North American trees, which were grouped by family and location. Specimens were accompanied by water-color sketches and wax models of leaves, flowers, and fruit, small maps of geographical distribution, and labels explained the characteristics of the wood and its economic uses (4, 1904, p.38-39; 4, 1911, p. 28; 4, 1927, p. 8).

The famous Giant Sequoia, a section of a 1,400-year-old, 300-foot-tall sequoia tree felled in California in 1891, and other redwood trunk sections were originally exhibited in the Hall of Invertebrates (Darwin Hall), but were moved to the Jesup Wood Hall in 1912 (3, 1912, p.33; 5). The hall later featured a 45-foot-long, several million-year-old fossil tree trunk, the Menken Collection of Glass Flowers, and a "dissolving diorama", which depicted a scene of the Colorado White Pine Forest in Idaho, starting with a forest fire in the distance and dissolving into a scene of the same area after the fire (4, 1929, p. 34; 4, 1939, p. 54-55; 4, 1943, p. 54-44).

In 1946 planning began for three more modern halls covering topics in botany and forestry. Plans for a Botany Hall were proposed but not realized, however, the Landscape Hall (Felix M. Warburg Memorial Hall of New York State Environment) and the Forestry Hall (Hall of North American Forests), opened in 1951 and 1958, respectively (2, 2011).

Sources

(1) Begley, Hannah, "Timeline for the Department of Forestry: Evolution in Focus and Name." American Museum of Natural History: Hidden Collections: Stories From the Archive. January 2012, accessed July 7, 2017, http://images.library.amnh.org/hiddencollections/resources/department-of-forestry-timeline/.

(2) Begley, Hannah, "American Museum of Natural History: Jesup Wood Hall Papers, 1880-1953 (bulk 1880-1920, 1938-1951)." October-November 2011, accessed July 7, 2017, http://images.library.amnh.org/hiddencollections/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DR091_Jesup_Wood_Hall_findaid.pdf.

(3) American Museum of Natural History. Annual Reports. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1895-1912.

(4) General Guide to the Exhibition Halls of the American Museum of Natural History. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1904-1943.

(5) American Museum of Natural History, "Giant Sequoia Tree." American Museum of Natural History, accessed July 7, 2017, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/biodiversity-and-environmental-halls/hall-of-north-american-forests/giant-sequoia-tree.

Information for the hall appears in the following Museum publications:

Annual Reports for years 1891 (page 13, 15); 1895 (page 8-9, 14); 1898 (page 13); 1906 (page 15); 1908 (page 39); 1909 (page 41); 1911 (page 24, 32-33); 1912 (page 33,, 76-77); 1913 (page 36); 1915 (page 25); 1916 (page 62-64); 1917 (page 67-68); 1918 (page 64, 92); 1919 (page 70); 1921 (page 44, 110); 1922 (page 36-37, 50); 1923 (page 72); 1924 (page 138, 142), 1925 (82-83), 1929 (page 46-47), 1930 (page 38); 1938 (page 45); 1942 (page 12)

General Guides for the years 1904 (page 38-39); 1911 (page 28); 1913 (page 35); 1914 (page 35-37); 1916 (page 37-39) 1918 (page 25-26); 1919 (page 27-29); 1920 (page 27-29); 1921 (page 27-29); 1922 (page 27-29); 1923 (page 27-29); 1926 (page 37); 1927 (page 8, 37); 1928 (page 34); 1929 (page 34); 1930 (page 34); 1931 (page 19); 1932 (page 19); 1933 (page 19); 1934 (page 20); 1935 (page 20); 1936 (page 20); 1939 (page 54-55); 1943 (54-55); 1945 (page 54-55); 1947 (page 54-55); 1949 (page 54-55)

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

Camera Club of New York (Exhibition)
associated dates: 1922 December-1923 January

Dickerson, Mary Cynthia 1866-1923
Curator, Department of Woods and Forestry (1; 2).

Hay, Clarence L. (Clarence Leonard) 1884-1969
Honorary curator, Department of Woods and Forestry (1; 2).

Jesup, Morris K. (Morris Ketchum) 1830-1908
Museum President, created collection of North American Woods (1; 2).

Marston, Robert C
Assistant Curator, Department of Woods and Forestry, managed daily activities in Department (1; 2).

Pasteur Centenary (Exhibition)
associated dates: 1923, Winter-1923, Winter

Russell, Charles
Staff Associate, Department of Woods and Forestry (1; 2).

Sargent, Charles Sprague 1841-1927
Under the direction of Morris K. Jesup, collected specimens for the Collection of North American Woods (1; 2).

Wood Carvings and Caricatures of Animals (Exhibition)
associated dates: 1941 May 17-1941 June 15

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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