American Museum of Natural History
Organization
Found in 134 Collections and/or Records:
Alexander the Great
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 132
Scope and Contents
The 1956 Hollywood production of Alexander the Great provides the impetus for this broadcast, which compares the historical accuracy of the movie with actual relics from the fourth century B.C., in the collections of the AMNH. Scenes from the movie are shown, in addition to film clips of the crew making costumes, actors being dressed and made up, the sets and the ruins created. Robert Rossen, producer, director and writer of Alexander the Great, joins Walter Ashlin Fairservis, AMNH...
Dates:
1956
All things flow ; Japanese monkeys ; Genetics
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 79
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: All Things Flow. This segment takes its name from a film it presents that shows the constant motion in nature, through time-lapse photography. Lester R. Aronson, of the museum's Department of Animal Behavior, discusses the cat experiments in progress at that time. SEGMENT 2: Japanese Monkeys. Aronson narrates a film on the social life of an isolated group of Japanese monkeys. The film was made by the Japanese Anthropological Society and won an award at the Venice Film Festival....
Dates:
1954
Amahuaca
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 5
Scope and Contents
In 1960-1961, anthropologists Robert Carneiro (AMNH curator) and Gertrude Dole filmed the Amahuaca Indians, who inhabit a remote area of Peru, as documentation for their field work. The film documents the daily life of the inhabitants of Chumichinia, an island in the Ucayali River, whose way of life has not been significantly changed by outside contact except for the addition of modern clothing to their traditional costume. The planting and tending of maize, pottery making, baking of corn...
Dates:
1960-1961
Amazon head-hunters ; Theory of flight
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 68
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Amazon Head-Hunters. Harry Tschopik, ethnologist at the AMNH, discusses the custom of head-hunting as a means of vengeance practiced by the Jivaro Indians in the Montana region of Peru and Ecuador (near the headwaters of the Amazon River). Tschopik attributes the rapid decimation of the Jivaro to that custom. In the studio, Tschopik observes shrunken heads and narrates a film depicting a Jivaro raid of reprisal against their enemy. A man is killed and his head is taken, shrunk and...
Dates:
1954
Angotee
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 128
Scope and Contents
The program contrasts an Eskimo boy, Angotee, with an American boy, his counterpart of the same age. The show opens with Charles Collingwood observing a group of children playing in Central Park and then moves on to the film Angotee, on the life of an Eskimo boy. The story takes place in the Baffin Islands in northern Canada and follows Angotee from birth through marriage and parenting. At five years of age, Angotee learns to build an igloo and he kills his first seal at ten. The high points...
Dates:
1956
Animal behavior
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 92
Scope and Contents
Konrad Lorenz, foremost authority on animal behavior from the University of Muenster in Germany, discusses imprinting and animal behavior on this broadcast. A film is shown in which Lorenz separates a number of greylag goose eggs, imprinting and raising one half by himself, while the others are raised by the goose mother. Lorenz teaches the goslings to swim and fly and also learns to communicate with them. At the end of the experiment, he brings the two groups together and then calls to the...
Dates:
1955
Animal courtship behavior
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 53
Scope and Contents
The courtship behavior of various animals in relation to human behavioral patterns is the topic of discussion for this broadcast. Shown are the stylized, stiff-legged dance of the male stork, the violent fights of male bighorn rams, bison and sea elephants, as well as the posturing habits of the male Australian lyrebird in front of the female, the nuptial flight of the queen bee, and other examples which point out similarities and differences in the forms of courtship behavior between human...
Dates:
1953
Animal life in the desert
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 49
Scope and Contents
Charles M. Bogert, curator of herpetology at the AMNH, conducts a survey of American desert creatures for this broadcast. Hosted by Robert Northshield, the program highlights the struggle for survival by desert animals and current scientific research into mechanisms of heat regulation in reptiles. These cold-blooded animals are shown to adapt to environments with wide temperature fluctuations. Bogert covers the eyes of a snake and observes how the snake's heat sensors enables it to strike a...
Dates:
1953
Arctic exploration ; Indo-European languages
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 82
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Arctic Exploration. Sir Hubert Wilkins, the first person to explore the Arctic Circle in a submarine (in 1931), discusses the climate of the region and his unusual experiences in the submarine. The logistics of submarines are demonstrated with a model brought into the studio. Sir Hubert was a noted geographer and climatologist who served as consultant to the Quartermaster Research and Development Command of the U.S. Army. Highlights from his films on the historic submarine...
Dates:
1954
Army ants ; Rodeo
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 41
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Army Ants. Under the direction of Robert Brown of the U. S. Public Health Service, a CBS expedition collected a large number of army ants (nomadic and carnivorous ants) at Barro Colorado Island in the Canal Zone and brought them to the CBS television studio for the filming of the first segment of this Adventure broadcast. Theodore C. Schneirla, curator of animal behavior at the AMNH, describes these unusual ants and their habits. Footage produced by Brown includes a huge brood of...
Dates:
1953
American Museum of Natural History
Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024-5192