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American Museum of Natural History

 Organization

Found in 134 Collections and/or Records:

Oil digging in Purcell, Oklahoma

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 114
Scope and Contents Robert Northshield, producer of the Adventure series, joins engineers of the Carter Oil Company (a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey) in staking out a claim-site and starting drilling in Purcell, Oklahoma. The first show in a series on geology and oil, regular host Charles Collingwood is assisted by Norman Dennis Newell, from the AMNH Department of Geology. Film sequences illustrate oil rigs, drilling and dynamiting techniques, the use of derricks, and include an animated film on oil....
Dates: 1955

Origins of races, Australian aborigines

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 81
Scope and Contents This broadcast traces the origins of the world's races, with special emphasis on the Australian aborigines. The show opens with the John Butler dancers enacting the spread of races by traversing a giant map of the world, wearing Caucasian, black and Mongolian masks. Allen Keast, curator at the Australian Museum in Sydney and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, was a special guest on the show. An excellent film on contemporary Australian aborigines, also known as Australian Bushmen,...
Dates: 1954

Our moon and other moons ; Invertebrates

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 30
Scope and Contents In Our moon and other moons, the earth's moon and other satellites in space are discussed by Joseph M. Chamberlain, Catherine E. Barry and Frank H. Forrester, astronomers at the AMNH-Hayden Planetarium. The instruments used to study the solar system are presented, the short film Moons of Saturn is shown, and Copernican theory is discussed. (The first space probe to the moon was landed by the Soviet Union in September 1959 and the first man stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969.) In...
Dates: 1953

Planets ; Oil well #2

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 115
Scope and Contents SEGMENT 1: Planets. The program begins with a presentation of Professor Melies's 1902 film Le Voyage dans la Lune. This classic French film depicted an imaginary voyage to the moon. Joseph M. Chamberlain, chief astronomer at the AMNH-Hayden Planetarium, is interviewed about projected space travel and man's concept of the universe. A discussion follows, about what planets really look like and whether any of them are capable of supporting life. A Hayden Planetarium film on a trip through space...
Dates: 1955

Pompeii

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 139
Scope and Contents Walter Ashlin Fairservis, AMNH archaeologist, served as consultant for this broadcast on Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried for seventeen centuries by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The entire city of Pompeii is reproduced for this program in a realistic model. Films of the eruption of a volcano and strengths and weaknesses of Roman life help portray the events which led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Sins of Pompeii is the title of the film that depicts the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius...
Dates: 1956

Portrait of the Arctic

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 61
Scope and Contents

The entire show is a film narrated by Robert Cushman Murphy, AMNH ornithologist. Murphy discusses life in the Arctic and identifies various animals and birds seen in the film. The film tracks a polar bear cub from its early nursing days through adventures with eider ducks, foxes, and a walrus. The danger of the bear's lifestyle is portrayed in a delightful sequence of events which depict animal life in the Arctic.

Dates: 1954

Primitive strikes back

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 88
Scope and Contents Harry Tschopik, AMNH curator of ethnology, discusses the relationship between primitive peoples and the scientific anthropologist and others who study them. Tschopik uses artifacts collected from native tribes all over the world to demonstrate how ethnologists study primitive cultures and how they are sometimes studied in turn. Scenes from a Sydney Kaufman production, Sorcerer's Village, depict snake dances, jugglers, stilt dancers, and an inauguration ceremony on the Ivory Coast. The film...
Dates: 1954

Quetzalcoatl

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 108
Scope and Contents Broadcast from the museum's Hall of Mexico and Central America, the program presents an in-depth examination of the influence Quetzalcoatl (Serpent God of the Aztecs) had on four major cultures. Mixtec, Toltec, Mayan, and Aztec Indians worshiped Quetzalcoatl, who was believed to be both a legendary hero and ruler, as well as a benevolent deity. He first provided the Aztecs with great material blessings including, it is believed, maize. In Central American religions, Quetzalcoatl has a...
Dates: 1955

Rams of the rimrock ; Brontosaurus ; Trance and dance in Bali

 Collection
Identifier: Film Collection no. 27
Scope and Contents SEGMENT 1: Rams of the Rimrock. Harold E. Anthony, AMNH mammalogist, introduces the first segment of this program while standing in front of the bighorn sheep diorama in the museum's Hall of North American Mammals and discusses the courtship behavior of the rams. This film, made by naturalist and AMNH lecturer Cleveland Grant, depicts the animals in head-on collisions fighting for mates. These rams have been known to fight for days over one female. SEGMENT 2: Brontosaurus. Shot in the Hall...
Dates: 1953