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

Dzanga-Ndoki Rainforest: The Making of an Exhibit (Exhibition)
birth: 1997 July
death: 1998
Exhibition. Opened in July 1997 and closed in 1998. Located on Floor 2 in the Akeley Gallery at the American Museum of Natural History. "Dzanga-Ndoki Rainforest: The Making of an Exhibit" was a behind-the-scenes look at the first phase in the creation of a major new Museum diorama.
Summary
"Dzanga-Ndoki Rainforest: The Making of an Exhibit" was a behind-the-scenes look at the first phase in the creation of a major new Museum diorama. Seventy-five color photographs documented an expedition to the Central African Republic that was the first step in the creation of a rainforest diorama for the Museum's upcoming Hall of Biodiversity which was scheduled to open in May 1998. The exhibit chronicled the Museum's 1996 expedition to the rainforest to collect and assemble materials to begin work on the 2,500-square-foot-diorama. Ornithologists, mammalogists, exhibition preparators and designers, and audio-visual technicians spent five weeks collecting, making casts of plants, shooting videotape and conducting interviews with indigenous peoples. Most of the photographs on view were taken on the expedition by Joel Cracraft, curator, Department of Ornithology, and J. Willard Whitson, associate director of exhibitions and senior exhibition developer, both of the American Museum of Natural History and co-curators of the exhibition. The exhibition also featured photographs of the Dzanga-Ndoki Conservation Project, which represents efforts to protect the forest. The exhibit was on view in the Akeley Gallery on the second floor of the American Museum of Natural History starting in July 1997.
Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: Joel Cracraft; J. Willard Whitson; AMNH Department of Ornithology; AMNH Department of Exhibitions.