American Museum of Natural History
Organization
Found in 134 Collections and/or Records:
Australian aborigines
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 43
Scope and Contents
This program closely examines Australian aborigines, first through a pantomime by the American Mime Theatre acting out racial migration from Asia, then through discussion and film. Harry L. Shapiro, AMNH anthropologist, discusses the physical anthropology of aborigines and points to their culture as one of the most primitive on earth. He also shows aboriginal weapons and artifacts. The uncredited film footage of central Australian aborigines is narrated by Shapiro. The people are seen in...
Dates:
1953
Australian fauna ; How to build an igloo
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 40
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Australian Fauna. Armand Denis, noted wildlife photographer and filmmaker and leader of the 1952 New Guinea Expedition for the AMNH, and his wife, Michaela, discuss the origins of the Australian continent and the subsequent evolution of wildlife there. Also shown is an Armand Denis RKO film depicting the Australian bush country, with views of wallaroos, wallabies, and some unusual reptiles. SEGMENT 2: How to Build an Igloo. The second segment presents the film How to Build an...
Dates:
1953
Bees
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 111
Scope and Contents
Charles Collingwood examines the world of bees in this segment. Along with live bees brought into the studio, Collingwood walks the viewers through a beehive. Two films, one produced in Russia and one produced by Karl von Frisch after 40 years of research on bees, are shown. Frisch (1886-1982), an Austrian, was a leading authority on animal behavior. Bees are seen foraging for food and dancing to identify food locations. The social structure of the hive and the role of the queen bee are...
Dates:
1955
Bees (Russian film)
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 54
Scope and Contents
This program presents a film produced in the Soviet Union as propaganda celebrating the "hive." Host Charles Collingwood first looks at the film without its soundtrack, as a natural history film, and then comments on its use as a propaganda film. Viewed from a historical perspective, the McCarthy era and Cold War mentality of Americans is evident and provides an interesting angle to the subject at hand. Soviet scientists produced a beautifully photographed film on the life of a bee in a...
Dates:
1954
Behavior of bees ; The legend of Colonel P.H. Fawcett
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 29
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Behavior of Bees. Bees are examined in the first segment of this program. Theodore C. Schneirla, AMNH entomologist, discusses their behavior, including the dances bees perform which give food location information to other members of the hive. Dances of the Bees, by Wilner Film and Slides, is shown. SEGMENT 2: The Legend of Colonel P. H. Fawcett. The mysterious disappearance in 1925 of Colonel P. H. Fawcett is the next topic of discussion. Fawcett was searching for a lost city in...
Dates:
1953
Belgian Congo's Hamba tribe
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 121
Scope and Contents
The noted anthropologist Luc de Heusch recorded various rites of the Hamba tribe of the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) for this program. Celebration of the Hamba, the English title of de Heusch's film, documents the ritual of the "leopardmen," the initiation of young men into the ranks of the warriors, some festivals, and the ceremony of a native divorce. Body painting, dancing, costumes, music, and feasts are depicted in detail. Harry Tschopik, curator of ethnology at the AMNH, was a consultant...
Dates:
1956
Big cats
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 133
Scope and Contents
Big Cats is the title of this program broadcast live from the Bronx Zoo (i.e. New York Zoological Park). Richard Mandel, the mammal curator at the zoo, is the guest. The program shows viewers how tigers, jaguars and leopards live in captivity. Film footage showing the captures of these big cats augment the discussion. Mountain lions found in the U.S. are seen being captured with the help of dogs. Films provided by the Missouri Conservation Commission and Twentieth Century Fox include an...
Dates:
1956
Bird brains
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 87
Scope and Contents
Robert Cushman Murphy, AMNH ornithologist, is a guest on this program. The topic under discussion is the intelligence of birds and their relative lack of intelligence in relation to other creatures. Demonstrations in the studio include live specimens and models, with a presentation of performing African lovebirds. Murphy argues that, despite claims that species such as talking parrots, parakeets, and mynas are intelligent, most birds rank low in intelligence, usually just above reptiles....
Dates:
1954
Birds of paradise and spiders (beauty and the beast)
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 95
Scope and Contents
SEGMENT 1: Birds of Paradise. Ernest Thomas Gilliard, AMNH curator of birds, joins Charles Collingwood to discuss birds of paradise as examples of beauty. Gilliard led an expedition to New Guinea in 1953-54 to study the birds of paradise, found almost exclusively in New Guinea. Their uses in native costume are shown. A large photographic blow-up of the birds is used as a backdrop for the discussion in the studio. SEGMENT 2: Spiders. Demonstrating the beauty and the beast in nature, this...
Dates:
1955
Buddhism
Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 126
Scope and Contents
The setting for this broadcast is a Buddhist temple in Farmingdale, New Jersey, in a community where 160 Tibetan political and religious refugees have settled. Buddhist rituals, customs, and special New Year's day celebrations are observed as the community celebrates its freedom. Filmed studies of Buddhist temples in Asia, statues of Buddha, a boy becoming a Buddhist monk, pilgrims praying, and death and cremation, visually enhance this examination of Buddhism. Geshe Wangyal, professor of...
Dates:
1956
American Museum of Natural History
Museum Archives at the Gottesman Research Library
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New York, NY 10024-5192