A Monumental Man 



Two halls , three murals , four dioramas , 

 a massive bronze statue on horseback 

 at the main entrance — these are a few of 

 the ways in which the American Museum 

 of Natural History pays public homage to 

 Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of 

 the United States and great friend of the 

 Museum who was born 150 years ago this 

 month, on October 27, 1858. 



Roosevelt was ten years old when, in 

 1869, a group of private citizens, includ- 

 ing his father, Theodore Sr., approved the 

 Museum's original charter in the parlor 

 of his boyhood home in Manhattan. In 

 1871, a teenaged "Teedie," as his family 

 called him, donated to the fledgling Mu- 

 seum one bat, 12 mice, a turtle, the skull 

 of a red squirrel, and four bird eggs. It 

 was the beginning of a lifelong relation- 

 ship during which numerous Roosevelt 

 specimens would make their way to the 

 Museum, and the incomparable TR — sol- 

 dier, statesman, author, civil rights advo- 

 cate, explorer, naturalist, conservationist, 

 and more — would become the embodi- 



Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt 



ment of the spirit of the Museum. 



So it is fitting that tributes abound. A 

 dozen titles from "Ranchman" to "Patri- 

 ot" are carved into the stone parapet above 

 the plaza at the entrance to the Museum, 

 conveying the remarkable breadth of his 

 interests. Inside, beneath the soaring 

 vaulted ceiling of the Roosevelt Rotunda, 

 quotations from his prolific writings 

 are carved into four walls while three 



large painted murals depict important 

 episodes in his life: the building of the 

 Panama Canal; the mediating of a peace 

 treaty between Russia and Japan in 1905 

 for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize; 

 and an African expedition in which he 

 joined Museum explorer Carl Akeley in 

 search of elephants. It was then, in 1909, 

 that he collected the cow elephant still 

 visible just to the right as you enter the 

 Akeley Hall of African Mammals beyond 

 the Rotunda, along with her calf, collect- 

 ed by his son Kermit. 



One floor below, in the Roosevelt Me- 

 morial Hall, visitors will find an inscribed 

 catalog of his accomplishments, cases 

 filled with personal memorabilia, and 

 four dioramas about his life, including a 

 tranquil scene in the Theodore Roosevelt 

 Sanctuary, the oldest Audubon songbird 

 sanctuary in the nation. It was not far 

 from there, at Sagamore Hill, his home in 

 Oyster Bay, Long Island, that TR died on 

 January 6, 1919. One of his sons would 

 cable the others: "The old lion is dead." 



Butterflies 

 by the Book 



As visitors mingle among the 

 hundreds of live butterflies and 

 moths in The Butterfly Conservatory: 

 Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter, which 

 opens this month, eager educators will be 

 on hand to offer lessons in lepidoptery, 

 including life cycles, camouflage, 

 evolution, conservation, and more. 

 Now, the curious can also turn to a 

 comprehensive new guide: Do Butterflies 

 Bite? Fascinating Answers to Questions 

 about Butterflies and Moths. 



Co-authored by Hazel Davies, Manager 

 of Living Exhibits at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, and Carol A. 

 Butler, an AMNH volunteer, Do Butterflies 

 Bite? was published this summer by 

 Rutgers University Press. Packed with 

 information and illustrated with photos 

 by both authors and drawings by William 

 H. Howe, the book is organized in a user- 

 friendly Q-and-A format. The aim is to fill 

 a void, the authors write, "to answer all 

 the questions we have been asked over 

 the years and even those questions that 



we've asked ourselves." Among them, do 

 butterflies sleep? Do they have ears? How 

 fast do they fly? How long do they live? 

 And, of course, do they bite? (For every 

 squeamish child or adult who wonders 

 about that before entering the exhibition, 

 the answer is no.) 



The Butterfly Conservatory has been an 

 annual favorite since it first opened in 

 1998, and features up to 500 live, free- 

 flying butterflies from Central, South, 

 and North America, Africa, and Asia. 

 It is housed in the Museum's Whitney 

 Memorial Hall of Oceanic Birds in a 

 lush tropical vivarium that approximates 

 their natural habitat. Davies, for all 

 her familiarity with it, thrills to this live 

 experience. "After ten years," she says, 

 "it's still exciting to see a butterfly emerge 

 and unfurl its wings." 



The Butterfly Conservatory opens 

 October n, and runs through May 25, 

 2009. Visit www.amnh.org for more 

 information and to purchase tickets. 



The contents of these paces are provideo to Natural History by the American Museum of Natural History. 



