How Exhibits Are Made (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1954 March 5 - 1954 June, approximately

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened March 5, 1954 and closed approximately June 1954. Located in Section 2, Floor 1 in the Grand Gallery at the American Museum of Natural History. How Exhibits Are Made explained the complex process of creating exhibitions for the American Museum of Natural History.

Summary

How Exhibits Are Made at the American Museum of Natural History explained the complex process of creating exhibitions for the Museum. It opened in a newly redecorated Grand Gallery (Seventy-Seventh Street Foyer). The new Foyer and the exhibition were designed by L. Brooks Freeman, the Museum's Chief Designer, and Museum Art Director Gordon Reekie. The exhibition traced the story of creating exhibition through research, art, and craftmanship. A concurrent exhibition, The Horse and Man, was also on view in Seventy-Seventh Street Foyer at the time of its reopening in 1954 (1, p. 1-2).

The exhibition, a thirteen-panel display, included (1, p. 1-2):

*Free-standing photographic murals

*Photographs, including those of carpenters, electricians, painters, metal workers, and plasterers executing the designs created by the exhibition department and architects

*Cases of objects collected during expeditions

*Cases demonstrating the process of preparing skins and hide for exhibits

*Section on "Story Development", which included an architectural scale model, a sketch, blueprint, a rendering, and photographs

*Section on completed exhibitions

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. "Museum Foyer Gets New Look as Important Step in Remodelling Program." March 5, 1954. Departmental Records, DR 101. American Museum of Natural History Library.

---

Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Grand Gallery.
Location of exhibition 1954 March 5 – 1954 June, approximately, Seventy-Seventh Street Foyer in documentation (1, p. 1)

Freeman, Leonard Brooks
Museum Chief Designer; created exhibition with Museum Art Director Gordon Reekie (1, p. 2)

Reekie, Gordon
Museum Art Director; created exhibition with Museum Chief Designer, L. Brooks Freeman (1, p. 2)

The Horse and Man (Exhibition)
Concurrent exhibition shown during the reopening of the Seventy-Seventh Street Foyer (Grand Gallery) (1, p. 2)

Related Resources

American Museum of Natural History Special Collections photographic drawers
Repository: AMNH Special Collections. [Black and white photo prints of exhibition on view]

American Museum of Natural History press releases, 1933-1990s.
"Museum Foyer Gets New Look as Important Step in Remodelling Program." March 5, 1954.

---