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

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Birds of the World (1929-); Birds; Birds of the World; Hall of Birds of the World; Hall of Habitat Bird Groups of the World; Central Bird Hall; Birds of the Continents Hall; Birds of the World Hall; Faunal Groups Bird Hall; Faunal Groups of Birds of the World; Faunal Groups of Birds of the World Hall; Hall of the Birds of the World; Faunal Bird Groups; Synoptic and Geographic Hall of Birds
birth: 1929
death: present
Permanent exhibition. Opened April 11, 1929. Located on Floor 2, Section 2. The Hall of Birds of the World (1929-) at the American Museum of Natural History (1, 1934, p. 59) is the second hall to use this name. The original Hall of Birds of the World was a systematic hall. The two halls were both open between 1930-1945. The original hall closed by 1947 and the second, consisting of twelve habitat dioramas, remains open of 2017 (1, 1934, p. 59). Curator Frank M. Chapman (2,1926, p. 66) and artists Albert E. Butler, Raymond deLucia, Arthur Jansson, Francis Lee Jaques, Matthew Kalmenoff, Frank J. Mackenzie, George Petersen, Raymond Potter, Stephen C. Quinn, Fred Scherer, and David Schwendeman (3, 2006, p. 169) contributed to the hall. The Byrd Antarctic Expedition provided the King Penguin Group (2, 1931, p. 45).
Annual Reports from 1926-1928, indicate that the new bird hall with habitat dioramas may have been considered a part of and compliment to the synoptic Hall of Birds of the World, referring to the new hall as "twelve large built-in cases for habitat groups in the Hall of Birds of the World" (2, 1926, p. 145), but were later considered two different halls. On April 11, 1929, the first two habitat groups in the new hall, the South Georgia Island and Panama Groups, opened to the public (2, 1929, p. 20). The last habitat group in the hall, the Japan Group, was completed in 1959 (2, 1959/60, p. 23-24).
The 12 dioramas in the hall are:
Alps
American Tropical Forest
Australia
Congo Forest
East African Plains
Europe (England)
Gobi Desert
High Andes
Japan
Pampas
South Georgia
Tundra (3, 2006, p. 169)