more humble group of vertebrates: birds. In 1885, 

 Morris K. Jesup, then president of the museum, 

 was entranced by a British Museum exhibit of 

 local birds, perched on botanical models of local 

 plants. Jesup invited the artists responsible to come 

 to New York to create a similar exhibit at AMNH. 

 The result was a lifelike display of a pair of Ameri- 

 can robins nesting in the bough of a flowering 

 apple tree. 



The robin exhibit proved so popular that it easi- 

 ly generated funding for more. The early exhibits, 

 known at the time as "habitat groups," were simple 

 glass cases containing taxidermy specimens and 

 botanical models. Frank M. Chapman, a young or- 

 nithologist, improved their design by including a 

 painted background of the birds' habitat. In still 

 later exhibits, the painted background was rendered 

 on a curved surface. 



ward to deflect reflections downward and away from 

 visitors' eyes — an ingenious innovation for the time. 

 Inside the cases the "ground" is below the level of 

 the visitor, enhancing the illusion that the scene 

 drops off dramatically into an infinite space beyond. 



Each scene is startlingly realistic, featuring one or 

 more large African mammals. All around are the soil, 

 plants, trees, and birds that share the animal's native 

 habitat. A landscape mural curves behind the mount- 

 ed specimens and the three-dimensional foreground, 

 creating the impression of a limitless vista. 



Nearly all of the dioramas in the hall presented 

 their creators with artistic challenges related 

 to the "tie-in" — the edge along which the fore- 

 ground scene had to merge into the background 

 painting to create the illusion of a seamless image. 

 That hurdle was particularly demanding for the 



Andros coral reef diorama (opposite page) at AMNH is the world's only double-decker diorama. 

 On the mezzanine level, the viewer sees the reef as it appears above the water surface; on the 

 lower level, the viewer sees the underwater habitat. When scientists and artists collected refer- 

 ence materials for the diorama, in 1924, scuba equipment had not been developed, so workers 

 relied on an underwater diving apparatus (above left). Chris E. Olsen, a background artist for 

 the diorama, made field sketches for the exhibit on location underwater (above right). 



It wasn't until the naturalist and taxidermist Carl 

 Akeley embraced Chapman's approach of traveling 

 to document each specific diorama that the diorama 

 realized its most magnificent expression at the mu- 

 seum: a gallery dedicated to African wildlife. When 

 the Akeley Hall of African Mammals finally opened 

 in 1 936, ten years after Akeley s death, the exhibition 

 showcased the groundbreaking sculptural techniques 

 he created for taxidermy, which are still in use today. 



Crossing the threshold of the Akeley Hall, one 

 enters a hushed, darkened theater that portrays the 

 vanishing natural Eden of Africa. Twenty-eight lu- 

 minous "windows" depict the natural world of the 

 continent. The dioramas have eighteen-foot ceil- 

 ings, and some are as deep as twenty-three feet. The 

 windowpanes, thirteen feet high, are angled down- 



scene of the Libyan Desert [see photograph on preced- 

 ing two pages] . Unlike other dioramas, in which dense 

 vegetation conceals the point where foreground 

 meets background, the desert scene depicts an open, 

 flat vista with little to conceal the tie-in. So when 

 the artist James Perry Wilson painted the back- 

 ground mural for the desert diorama, he depicted 

 the scene at sunrise. With the sun low on the hori- 

 zon, long horizontal shadows are cast across the 

 landscape in the painted scene. Wilson also added a 

 rock outcrop to his landscape on the far left {not seen 

 in the photograph], which casts a long, prominent 

 shadow across the scene, just above the tie-in. The 

 shadow draws the viewer's eye away from the point 

 where the foreground sand meets the painted back- 

 ground, thereby effectively disguising it. 



50 



NATURAL HISTORY April 2006 



