The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way

With a New Preface by the Author and a New Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Colin Davey (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

278 Seiten

2020
Fordham University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8232-8963-9 (ISBN)

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Tells the story of the building of the American Museum of Natural History and Hayden Planetarium, a story of history, politics, science, and exploration, including the roles of American presidents, New York power brokers, museum presidents, planetarium directors, polar and African explorers, and German rocket scientists.

The American Museum of Natural History is one of New York City’s most beloved institutions, and one of the largest, most celebrated museums in the world. Since 1869, generations of New Yorkers and tourists of all ages have been educated and entertained here. Located across from Central Park, the sprawling structure, spanning four city blocks, is a fascinating conglomeration of many buildings of diverse architectural styles built over a period of 150 years. The first book to tell the history of the museum from the point of view of these buildings, including the planned Gilder Center, The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way contextualizes them within New York and American history and the history of science.

Part II, “The Heavens in the Attic,” is the first detailed history of the Hayden Planetarium, from the museum’s earliest astronomy exhibits, to Clyde Fisher and the original planetarium, to Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and it features a photographic tour through the original Hayden Planetarium.

Author Colin Davey spent much of his childhood literally and figuratively lost in the museum’s labyrinthine hallways. The museum grew in fits and starts according to the vicissitudes of backroom deals, personal agendas, two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. Chronicling its evolution―from the selection of a desolate, rocky, hilly, swampy site, known as Manhattan Square to the present day―the book includes some of the most important and colorful characters in the city’s history, including the notoriously corrupt and powerful “Boss” Tweed, “Father of New York City” Andrew Haswell Green, and twentieth-century powerbroker and master builder Robert Moses; museum presidents Morris K. Jesup, Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Ellen Futter; and American presidents, polar and African explorers, dinosaur hunters, and German rocket scientists.

Richly illustrated with period photos, The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way is based on deep archival research and interviews.

Colin Davey (Author) Colin Davey’s life was shaped by frequent visits to the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium as a child. He is a scientist, software engineer, martial artist, and author of Learn Boogie Woogie Piano (Boogie Woogie Press, 1998). Thomas A. Lesser (With) Thomas A. Lesser was Scientific Assistant and Intern Astronomer (1974–76) and Senior Lecturer (1975–82) at the Hayden Planetarium. He has also held several positions at the American Museum of Natural History, including Manager of Development.

Foreword | vii

Kermit Roosevelt III

How This Book Came to Be Written | xi

Colin Davey

Preface | xv

Thomas A. Lesser

Introduction | 1

Part I: The American Museum of Natural History and How It Got That Way

1 Manhattan Square | 13

2 The Master Plan and the Bickmore Wing | 35

3 The Jesup Years (1881–1908) and the Seventy-Seventh Street Façade | 43

4 Robert Peary, the Journey to the North Pole, and the Cape York Meteorites | 56

5 The Osborn Years (1908–1933) | 77

6 The Akeley African Hall: From the Elephant in the Room to the Seven-Hundred- Pound Gorilla | 97

7 The Evolution of the Dinosaur Exhibits | 110

8 The Years 1936 to 1999 | 125

Part II: The Heavens in the Attic

9 From the Beginning of Time to October 2, 1935 | 133

10 Robert Moses and the Norman Bel Geddes Report | 152

11 The Golden Age of Spaceflight and the Hayden Planetarium | 159

12 A Visit to the Original Hayden Planetarium | 170

13 The Rose Center for Earth and Space | 188

Epilogue: The Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation | 197

Acknowledgments | 203

Notes | 207

Bibliography | 245

Index | 257

Erscheinungsdatum	26.10.2020
Co-Autor	Thomas A. Lesser
Zusatzinfo	50 b/w illustrations
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
	Reisen ► Hotel- / Restaurantführer
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Technik ► Architektur
ISBN-10	0-8232-8963-X / 082328963X
ISBN-13	978-0-8232-8963-9 / 9780823289639
Zustand	Neuware