At THE American Museum OF Natural History 



1 25TH- Anniversary Cultural 

 Festival 



The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory will commemorate 125 years of expe- 

 dition, exploration, and discovery on Satur- 

 day, June 4, with a day-long festival 

 celebrating cultural diversity. Among the 

 festival's features will be performances of 

 traditional music and dance, foods of the 

 world, and demonstrations and workshops. 

 Visitors are also invited to bring artifacts, 

 bones, fossils, minerals, and other natural 

 objects (no gemstones, please) for identifi- 

 cation by Museum scientists. General ad- 

 mission to the Museum, as well as to the 

 Naturemax Theater and the Hayden Plane- 

 tarium, will be waived. For further schedule 

 information, call (212) 769-5 1(X). 



Peruvian Treasures 



The exhibition "Royal Tombs of Sipan" 

 will feature gold, silver, and gilded copper 

 objects of the Moche, a people that flour- 

 ished from a.d. 100 to 800 in northern Peru. 

 The tombs, discovered by archeologists in 

 1987, are the richest ever excavated in the 

 New World. The treasures include a two- 

 foot-high gold-and-silver scepter, gold 

 armor, elaborate headdresses, and a selec- 

 tion of jewelry. The exhibition will open in 

 Gallery 3 on Friday, June 24, and run 

 through January 1995. Admission is $5 

 ($2.50 for children) and includes an audio 

 tour narrated in English or Spanish. 



Walter Alva, the chief archeologist at 

 Sipan and co-curator of the exhibition, will 

 give a lecture in Spanish (with simultaneous 

 translation into English) on Monday, June 

 20. Co-curator Christopher B. Donnan will 

 speak on Friday, June 24. Both talks will 

 begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Kaufmann Theater. 

 The lecture series costs $25 and includes a 

 special preview of the exhibition on June 20 

 from 5:00 to 6:45 p.m. Call (212) 769-5310 

 for information. 



The Earth as a 

 Peppercorn 



The "planet walk" through the solar sys- 

 tem will take place on the Museum's 

 grounds on Sunday, June 12, at 1:00 p.m. A 

 special evening tour will also be given on 

 Saturday, June 25, at 8:(X) rm. Developed in 

 1969 by astronomer Guy OtteweU, the walk 

 follows a thousand-yard-long model of the 

 solar system. Volunteer guide Robert Cam- 

 panile will lead the tour, which is free and 

 begins on the Planetarium's front steps on 

 81st Street. Call (212) 769-5566 for infor- 

 mation and reservations. 



Update: The Universe 



Black holes, new planets, colliding galax- 

 ies, and the quest for extraterrestrial life will 

 be explored in die Planetarium's Sky Show 

 Update: The Universe. Opening Thursday, 

 June 16, the show incorporates many of the 

 discoveries made by the Compton Gamma 

 Ray Observatory, the European ROSAT, 

 and the recently overhauled Hubble Space 

 Telescope. Call (212) 769-5100 for show 

 times, prices, and other information about 

 Planetarium events. 



The Natural History of Love 



Poet and nature writer Diane Ackerman 

 will discuss her latest book, The Natural 

 History of Love, on Thursday, June 9, at 

 7:00 P.M. This nonfiction narrative draws on 

 history, science, psychology, and social cus- 

 toms. The program will take place in the 

 Kaufmann Theater. Tickets are $20. For in- 

 formation, call (212) 769-5310. 



The Quark and the Jaguar 



Murray Gell-Mann is a theoretical physi- 

 cist and winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for 

 his discovery of quarks. Now at the Santa Fe 

 Institute, he works on a range of theoretical 

 issues with other scholars and scientists. 

 Among the topics he will speak about on 

 Thursday, June 16, at 7:00 p.m., are the con- 

 nections between elementary particle 

 physics and the process of natural selection. 

 Tickets are $20. Call (212) 769-5310 for 

 more information. 



The Wonders of Metropolitan 

 New York 



The history of New York's water supply 

 system and the area's billion-year-old geol- 

 ogy will be the subjects of two talks by Sid- 

 ney S. Horenstein, geologist and coordina- 

 tor of environmental public programs at the 

 Museum. The Thursday-evening lectures 

 will be given on June 9 and 16 at 7:00 p.m. in 

 the Kaufmann Theater. Tickets are $25. 



Horenstein will also be conducting two 3- 

 hour sunset cruises. The first, on Tuesday, 

 June 7, will survey the geological features 

 of the Hudson River, the southernmost fiord 

 in the Northern Hemisphere. The ecology 

 and origins of the river and the Palisades are 

 among the topics covered on the trip. The 

 second boat tour, on Tuesday, June 14, will 

 examine some of New York's siuroimding 

 waterways, including Newtown Creek, But- 

 termilk Channel, and Gowanus Bay. The 

 cruises will run from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Tick- 

 ets for each are $25 ($22 for members). Call 

 (212) 769-5310 for information. 



Calling All Hippos 



The social organization and underwater 

 behavior of hippos will be the subject of a 

 talk by William Barklow, a professor of bi- 

 ology at Framingham State College in 

 Massachusetts. Barklow's 1989 fieldwork in 

 Tanzania documented the vocal repertoire 

 of hippos, including underwater signals 

 similar to those of dolphins eind whales. The 

 sUde-illustrated lecture will be presented on 

 Thursday, June 30, at 7:00 p.m. in tiie Kauf- 

 mann Theater. For ticket availability and in- 

 formation, caU (212) 769-5606. 



Field Trip to Sterling Hill Mine 



Joseph J. Peters, a senior scientific assis- 

 tant in the Museum's Department of Min- 

 eral Sciences, will lead a tour of the last op- 

 erating zinc mine in New Jersey on 

 Saturday, June 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:(X) 

 p.m.. The group wiU visit underground tun- 

 nels and view mineral displays in a natural 

 envirormient. The trip is Umited to thirty-six 

 adults and costs $50. Call (212) 769-5310 

 for reservatons and information. 



Storytelling 



Folk tales, myths, and personal stories 

 will be told by master storytellers Gioia 

 Timpanelli and Diane Wolkstein on 

 Wednesday, June 8, at 7:00 pm. in tiie Kauf- 

 mann Theater. Gioia Timpanelli won the 

 Women's National Book Association Award 

 for her work on oral traditions and has just 

 compiled a book based on Sicilian folk 

 tales. Diane Wolkstein is the author of sev- 

 enteen books and teaches storytelUng at 

 Bank Street CoUege. Call (212) 769-5606 

 for ticket availability. 



Origami Theater 



Using minimal props — her hands and 

 sheets of paper — Marieke de Hoop, an 

 origami expert from Holland, will tell a 

 story about the figures she creates as she 

 transforms the paper into a swan, a fox, a 

 peacock, or a star. This presentation, which 

 she calls Orikadabra, will take place in the 

 Under Theater on Wednesday, June 15, at 

 3:30 RM. Call (212) 769-5606 for ticket 

 availability. 



These events take place at the American 

 Museum of Naniral History, Central Park 

 West at 79th Street in New York City. The 

 Kaufmann and Under Theaters are located 

 in the Charles A. Dana Education Wing. 

 The Museum has a pay-what-you-wish ad- 

 mission poUcy. For more information about 

 the Museum, caU (212) 769-5100. 



96 Natural History 6/94 



