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Whitney Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds

 Organization

Dates

  • Existence: 1939

Historical Note

Abstract:

Permanent exhibition. Opened 1939. Located on Floor 2, Section 19. The Whitney Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds at the American Museum of Natural History represents bird life on islands of the Pacific Ocean, from the Arctic to the Subantarctic and from the coast of Peru to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. It was developed as a memorial to Harry Payne Whitney and his father, William C. Whitney, by Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney after her husband's death in 1930. Following the death of Mrs. Whitney in 1942, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Cornelius V. Whitney, with the support of his family, carried on the necessary work to complete the project (1, 1953). The hall was completed and dedicated in 1953. The hall's curator was Robert Cushman Murphy. The Whitney South Sea Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1920-1941), managed by Leonard C. Sanford and Robert Cushman Murphy and included expedition members Rollo Beck and William Coultas, contributed the majority of specimens and research for the hall. The hall was designed by Francis Lee Jaques who also painted the sky dome and the background for the dioramas. Other artists included George Adams, Raymond deLucia, Joseph Guerry, George Frederick Mason, Carlton McKinley, George Petersen, Raymond B. Potter, Reginald "Buddy" Sayre, and others listed below in Relations (7, 2006, p. 167).

Summary

Planning began in 1929, with construction following in 1935. In 1939 the Whitney Memorial Hall opened to the public with eight exhibit groups, and a ninth group showing birds of the high mountains of new Guinea, made possible by support from Richard Archbold through materials collected during his expedition. (2, 1939, p 8). Further construction was interrupted for many years by World War II and its aftermath, and the hall was finally completed and dedicated on January 29, 1953. The dedication marked the completion of the four final habitat groups in the hall (3, 1953).

The Whitney Memorial Hall was the principal exhibition floor of the Whitney Wing in the museum, with Robert Cushman Murphy directing and guiding the research, construction and preparation (1). In the Dedication Ceremony Program from January 29, 1953, Murphy wrote:

"Ringed by a common horizon, you see very nearly every type of Pacific island. The landscapes are real, not imaginary; each represents an actual view from a particular geographic point. Climatically, they run from the Equator to icy seas; meteorologically, from the bone-dry Chinchas to rain-forest of Solomons; structurally, from an atoll of the Tuamotus to the Snow Mountains of New Guinea; botanically, from Galapagos lichens and cacti to the lofty conifers of New Zealand. Ornithologically, you will find here all the families of sea fowl, from penguins to terns, that inhabit an ocean covering a third of our globe. Even among land birds the sampling is surprisingly comprehensive."

The Whitney South Sea Expedition (1920-1941), funded by Harry Payne Whitney, searched out the birds of the little-explored Pacific Islands. In continuous journeys throughout the entire South Pacific region, from Eastern Polynesia westward to New Guinea and the Philippine Islands, and from the Japanese mandated islands of the Carolines to New Zealand, the expeditions traveled more than 50,000 miles and visited some 350 islands. The islands varied from tropical to subantarctic, flat to mountainous, and arid to rainforest. The birds, including more than 30 previously-unknown species, were adapted to every kind of habitat encountered. The materials collected by this and later expeditions provided the basis for the Whitney Memorial Hall, in which scenes illustrate this great span of environments. The information collected has provided significant insights into the geographic distribution of bird populations and how their island isolation affects the development of new species (5, 1995).

Supplementary work in the field by Leonard C. Sanford, Templeton Crocker, Charles H. Stoll, Richard Archbold, Adam Bruce Fahnestock, John Sheridan Fahnestock, A.L. Rand, Rollo Beck, and William Coultas and funding from Andrew G. C. Sage and Henry W. Sage, contributed to the final exhibition in the Whitney Memorial Hall (6, 1953). Other expeditions included the Brewster-Sanford Expeditions (1913-1916) the Templeton Crocker South Pacific Expedition (1936-1937), the Archbold Expedition to New Guinea (1933), the Archbold-Rand New Guinea Expedition (1934-1939), the Fahnestock South Sea Expedition (1940) (2, 1929 p. 10; 2, 1935 p. 34; 2, 1936, p. 44-45; 2, 1940, p. 18).

From 1998 to 2017, The Butterfly Conservatory, an annual seasonal exhibition, took place inside the Whitney Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds (2, 2000, p. 44).

Outline:
  • The habitat groups reproduce the landscapes exactly as Museum expeditions found them. Each represents an actual site at a given time (3, 1953):
    • Shipfollowers, Southeast of South Island, New Zealand
    • Samoa, Island of Saoaii
    • Tuamotu, Island of Hao
    • Marquesas, Nukahiva Island
    • Peruvian Guano Islands, Pisia Bay, Peru
    • Galapagos, James Island
    • Hawaii, Island of Kaui
    • Laysan, Taipan Island, Hawaiian Bird Reservation
    • New Caledonia
    • Solomon Islands, Crawford Island
    • Philippines, Bataan Peninsula, Luzon Island
    • Papua, The Laloki River Gorge, Owen Stanley Mountains
    • Little Diomede Island, Bering Sea
    • Snow Mountains, New Guinea, Lake Habbema
    • Fiji, Vitu Tivu, Slopes of Mount Karombama
    • New Zealand, Lake Brunner in the South Island Alps
    • Snares Island, New Zealand
    • Birds of Paradise (central cases)
    • South Sea Lories (central cases)
    • Rifle Bird Group (central cases)
    • Malay Archipelago Group (central cases)
    • Bird Dome

REFERENCES

(1) American Museum of Natural History. Press Release. “Whitney South Sea Expedition and Whitney Memorial Hall by Cornelius V. Whitney.” January 30, 1953.

(2) American Museum of Natural History. Annual Reports. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1939-2000.

(3) American Museum of Natural History. Press Release. January 30, 1953.

(4) American Museum of Natural History. The American Museum of Natural History: An Introduction. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1972.

(5) Rexer, Lyle and Rachel Klein. American Museum of Natural History: American Museum of Natural History: 125 Years of Expedition and Discovery. New York: Harry N. Abrams; New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1994.

(6) American Museum of Natural History. Press Release. “Background Information on Whitney Memorial Hall of Pacific Bird Life”, January 30, 1953.

(7) Quinn, Stephen C. Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History. New York: Abrams; New York: American Museum of Natural History, 2006.

(8) American Museum of Natural History. General Guide to [the Exhibition Halls of] the American Museum of Natural History. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1958.

Information for the hall appears in the following Museum publications:

Annual Reports for the years 1929 (page 7-10, 123); 1930 (page 43); 1931 (page 51-52); 1932 (page 9-10); 1934 (page 11, 27, 74); 1935 (page 3, 15, 34, 37, 84); 1936 (page 13-14, 44-45); 1937 (page 62, 72); 1938 (page 1); 1939 (page 8, 21-22); 1940 (page 2, 18); 1941 (page 4); 1942 (page 11-12); 1944 (page 28, 34-35); 1948 (page [11]); 1949 (page [13]); 1950 (page 35); 1951 (page 20); 1952 (page 49); 1953 (page 52); 1962 (page 3, 44); 1984 (page 52); 1993 (page 87)

General Guides for years 1939 (page 80-85); 1943 (page 81-88); 1945 (page 81-88); 1947 (page 81-88); 1949 (page 81-88); 1953 (page 108-117); 1956 (page 118-127); 1958 (page 119-127); 1962 (page 10, 12, 30-31); 1964 (page 10, 12, 30-31)

American Museum of Natural History: A Pictorial Guide, 1967

American Museum of Natural History: An Introduction, 1972 (page 100)

American Museum of Natural History Official Guides for years 1984 (page 30-31); 1993 (page 11-12); 2001 (page 54)

Alternative Name Forms

Outline:
  • Uncontrolled name from AMNH publications (dates of use by year)
    • Whitney Hall of Birds (1928, 1929, 1935)
    • Whitney Hall (1928, 1936, 1937, 1948, 1962)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall (1929, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of Birds (1929, 1936)
    • Whitney Memorial Gallery of Oceanic Birds (1930)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds (1930, 1940, 1951, 1972, 1984, 2001)
    • South Oceanic Hall (1934)
    • Hall of Pacific Island Birds (1939)
    • South Sea Birds (1939, 1943, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1956)
    • Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds (1939, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1993)
    • Whitney Memorial Bird Hall (1940)
    • Whitney Hall of Pacific Birds (1942, 1962)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of Pacific Birds (1942)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of Pacific Bird Life (1952, 1993)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of South Pacific Birds (1953, 1956, 1958, 1962)
    • Whitney Memorial Hall of South Sea Birds (1958)
    • Whitney Memorial (1962, 1964)
    • Oceanic Birds (1962, 1964)
    • Hall of Oceanic Birds (1962, 1964, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, 2000)
    • Pacific Bird Life (1993)

Places

Topics

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:

American Museum of Natural History 50th Anniversary of the Whitney building photographic slides, 1986.

 Collection
Identifier: PSC 85D
Abstract

Views of the temporary exhibition held for the American Museum of Natural History's 50th anniversary of the Whitney Building. Includes displays with wall texts and exhibit preparation.

Dates: 1986

American Museum of Natural History Bird Halls photographic slides, 1949, undated.

 Collection
Identifier: PSC 14
Abstract

Slides of the American Museum of Natural History Bird halls including Whitney Hall Birds of Pacific and Conservation Group from the Roosevelt Hall. Images from dioramas. Captions describe bird names and AMNH hall location.

Dates: 1949, undated