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

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Late Dinosaurs.; Cretaceous Hall; Cretaceous Dinosaurs; Hall of Cretaceous Reptiles; Cretaceous Dinosaur Hall; Second Fossil Hall -- Cretaceous Dinosaurs; Second Fossil Hall -- Late Dinosaurs; Tyrannosaur Hall; Late Dinosaurs -- Tyrannosaur Hall; Hall of Late Dinosaurs; Late Dinosaurs
birth: 1939
death: 1992
Permanent exhibition. Opened 1939 and closed February 1992. Located on Floor 4, Section 9. The Hall of Late Dinosaurs opened alongside the Hall of Early Dinosaurs. The two halls succeeded the Hall of Dinosaurs and divided the dinosaur exhibits chronologically (1, 1938, p. 2). The hall was renovated and rearranged in 1955-1956 (1, 1955/56, p. 42). Expeditions led by Barnum Brown and Roy Chapman Andrew, including the Central Asiatic Expeditions (1921-1930), contributed many of the specimens in the hall. The hall closed in February 1992 for the creation of new fossil halls (2, 1990).
Not long after the Hall of Dinosaurs, newly separate from other fossil reptiles, fishes, and amphibians, opened in 1927, plans were afoot to separate the dinosaur exhibits into two halls (1, 1929, p. 2). With the Hall of Early Dinosaurs around the corner, the Hall of Late Dinosaurs opened in the same space as the original Hall of Dinosaurs. The Hall of Late Dinosaurs was named the Cretaceous Hall when it opened in 1939, though it was often referred to as the Tyrannosaur Hall in the 1950's and as the Hall of Late Dinosaurs from the 1960's onward.
The dominant feature of the hall—and one of the most famous exhibits in the Museum— was the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Mounts of Triceratops, Trachodon, Corythosaurus, Saurolophus, Procheneosaurus Anklyosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Struthiomimus (Ornithomimus), Protoceratops, Pteranodon, Archeaoptyrex, Monoclonius, Styracosaurus, Nodosaurus, and Camptosaur (3, 1939, p. 42-45; 3, 1956, p. 66-68; 3, 1958, p. 68) were also featured. Other exhibits included the "mummy" of a duck-billed dinosaur, life-like, fleshed-out models of Protoceratops hatching from eggs, and a wall exhibit of Birth, Life, and Death of a Dinosaur, which featured a series of Protoceratops skulls (3, 1962, p. 39; 4, 1967).
In the 1990's, the Museum's Department of Paleontology reimagined the fossils halls. The Halls of Early and Late Dinosaurs closed to make way for the Halls of Saurischian and Ornithischian Dinosaurs, which are arranged not by chronology but by evolutionary relationships. Many of the fossils in the Hall of Early and Late Dinosaurs moved to the newly arranged halls. Notably, the Tyrannosaurus rex moved to the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, and the Triceratops, duck-billed dinosaurs (Trachodons), dinosaur mummy, Anklyosaurus and Corythosaurus moved to the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs. In 1993, a special exhibition, Work in Progress: Drawing Board to Dinosaurs was on view in Gallery 77 for visitors to preview the new halls (5,1993, p. 15).