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

American Museum of Natural History. Allen Hall of North American Mammals.; Hall of North American Mammals; North American Mammals; North American Mammal Hall; Mammals of North America; North American Hall; North American Faunal Hall; Allen Hall; Allen Hall of North American Mammals; North American Hall of Mammals; Hall of American Mammals; J. A. Allen Hall of North American Mammals; Mammals of North America (Allen Hall)
birth: 1904
death: 1948
Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1904 and closed approximately 1946-1948. Located on Floor 2, Section 3. The Allen Hall of North American Mammals featured mounts of North American mammals in display cases. In 1922 the hall was named in honor of J.A. Allen, former mammalogy curator (1, 1922 p. 22). Specimens were collected for the hall on (2, 1902, p. 11, 27; 3, 1904 p. 29-31).
Unlike the current (as of 2017) dioramas on view in the Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals, the Allen Hall featured mounted mammal specimens in cases, some of which had painted backgrounds and foreground design (1, 1911, p. 43). The Allen Hall briefly contained African mammals, and also featured polar and oceanic mammals when the hall for Mammals of the Polar Regions was being used for preparation of the new Elephant Group and other African mammals (1, 1919, p. 53; 1, 1913, p. 55).
The Allen Hall of North American Mammals also included exhibits of mammals found within fifty miles of New York City, which were displayed elsewhere before 1912 (1, 1912, p. 50). The hall was continuously updated until it was replaced by the new Hall of North American Mammals. The Allen Hall's habitat groups included the opossum, raccoon, red and gray foxes, skunk, mink, weasel, rabbits, hares, woodchuck, squirrels, muskrat (3, 1911, p. 45-48), Alaska and New Brunswick moose, bison, pronghorn antelope (GG 1911 p. 47-49), fur seal, Grant's caribou, mountain sheep, walrus, polar bear, Roosevelt elk, Peary musk ox, Alaskan brown bears, mountain goats, beavers, (3, 1914, p. 65-70), brown bat (3, 1916, p. 71), Virginia deer, otter, pack rats (3, 1918, p. 57-63), timber wolves, jaguars, pumas, rats and mice, coyotes/prairie wolves, arctic wolves and foxes, peccary, chipmunks, wild cats, jack rabbits (3, 1928, p. 61), flying squirrels, weasels, European wild boars, black bears, Grant, woodland, and Peary's caribou (3, 1930, p. 60-64), and Grizzly bears (3, 1934, p. 60).
Although the new North American Mammal Hall opened in 1942, the old hall appears in the Museum General Guides as late as 1945. The two halls featured many of the same species including American bison, moose, Rocky Mountain goats, beavers, wolves, Virginia deer, grizzly and Alaskan brown bears, Grant's barren ground caribou, musk ox, pronghorns, black bears, and pumas (3, 1945, 112-116).