Great Gull Island—A Natural Laboratory (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1972 February 16 - 1972 September

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened February 16, 1972 and closed September 1972. Located on Floor 2 in the Akeley Gallery at the American Museum of Natural History. Great Gull Island—A Natural Laboratory depicted the research conducted on the Museum's field station at Great Gull Island located on the eastern end of Long Island Sound and highlighted the abnormalities noted in the island's tern population at the time; it was curated by Helen Hays of the Museum's Ornithology Department.

Summary

Great Gull Island—A Natural Laboratory depicted the research conducted on the Museum's field station at Great Gull Island located on the eastern end of Long Island Sound and highlighted the abnormalities noted in the island's tern population at the time; it was curated by Helen Hays of the Museum's Ornithology Department. Great Gull Island, an isolated, 17-acre former military outpost acquired by the Museum in 1949, was the largest undisturbed nesting area for terns in the Long Island Sound. Beginning in 1969 Helen Hays, chairman of the Ornithology Department's Great Gull Island Committee and others at the research station, noticed shell-thinning and birth defects among the island's tern population believed to be caused by contaminants in the Sound (1).

The exhibition was divided into sections describing the history of the island, tern banding and nesting, and recent occurrence of abnormalities. The exhibition was designed to recreate the feeling of a real tern colony (1). Some elements of this exhibition were subsequently installed in the Sanford Memorial Hall of the Biology of Birds (2, p. 22).

Highlights (1):

*Origami terns suspended from the ceiling

*Color photographs and displays explaining research and work done on the island

*Paintings of local bird species by Christopher Pineo

*An exhibit depicting a flock of terns swooping down into a typical nesting area in which mounted specimens were menaced by a hovering hawk

This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.

Sources

(1) American Museum of Natural History. Press Release. "New Exhibit on Great Gull Island Opens February 16 at the American Museum." February 16, 1972. Departmental Records, DR 101. American Museum of Natural History Library.

(2) American Museum of Natural History. Annual Report. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1973-1974.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Akeley Gallery.
Location of exhibition 1972 February 16 – 1972 September; referred to as Akeley Corridor in Museum documentation (1)

American Museum of Natural History. Department of Ornithology.
Related department (1)

American Museum of Natural History. Sanford Memorial Hall of the Biology of Birds.
Parts of exhibition reinstalled in Sanford Memorial Hall of the Biology of Birds (2, p. 22)

Great Gull Island (N.Y.)
Research of Museum field station Great Gull Island, featured in exhibition (1)

Hays, Helen
Curator of exhibition, Chairman of the Great Gull Island Committee of the Museum's Ornithology Department (1)

Related Resources

American Museum of Natural History. Annual Report. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1971-1972: 15, 32, 35, 40.

American Museum of Natural History annual reports, 1902-2001.
American Museum of Natural History. Annual Reports, Departmental. "Annual Report Department of Ornithology July 1, 1972-June 30, 1973." [1973].

American Museum of Natural History photographic drawers
Repository: AMNH Special Collections [Black and white contact sheets of exhibition on view and creation of origami terns for exhibition]

American Museum of Natural History press releases, 1933-1990s.
"Calendar of Events, February 1972." January 10, 1972.; "New Exhibit on Great Gull Island Opens February 16 at the American Museum." February 16, 1972.

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