Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Al Jazirah Al Hamra Heritage Village
Complejo Cultural Fábrica Imbabura
Guptill's Arena
In this deceptively simple dish, top-quality ingredients are paramount.
Kor Panich
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
In this deceptively simple dish, top-quality ingredients are paramount.
Kor Panich
Customize your bowl with sliced pork, pork balls, fish cake, and offal.
Rung Rueang
Pasties are an Upper Michigan tradition dating back to mining days.
Lehto’s Pasties
Stock up on picnic supplies with a side of history.
Horton Bay General Store
Take some of Michigan’s produce home with you.
American Spoon
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Podcast: Finding ‘The Great Gatsby’ in Louisville
Here’s which treats you can safely lug home without risking a fine.
Dear Atlas: What International Food Can I Legally Bring Into the U.S.?
Cely’s map is not only accurate, but captures the unique characteristics of Congaree’s trees and waterways.
How One Biologist Drew a Hyper-Accurate, Ranger-Approved Map of Congaree National Park
Though they’re protected inside the park, wolves can be killed when they cross its borders.
Wolves Have a Bad Reputation. One Yellowstone Naturalist Is Trying to Fix It.

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Manhattan Hall of North American Mammals

Hall of North American Mammals

Outstanding taxidermy dioramas showcase the grandeur of the continent's wildlife with spooky realism.

New York, New York

Added By
Mictlān Tēcutli
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
Hall of North American Mammals   edwardhblake / CC BY 2.0
Moose diorama.   Thomas Quine
The Jaguar of Arizona Sierra diorama.   Thomas Quine
Grizzly bears in Alaska diorama.   Thomas Quine
The Puma in the Grand Canyon diorama.   Thomas Quine
A stag elk and his does on a prairie.   Thomas Quine
The Bighorn sheep diorama.   Thomas Quine
The North American Bison of the prairie diorama.   Thomas Quine
The Timber wolf and aurora borealis diorama.   Thomas Quine
The American Museum of Natural History.   Javier Carbajal
A black bear’s close encounter with a cottonmouth.   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Vintage photograph of Robert Rockwell creating the brown bear diorama   Internet Archive Book Images
The melancholy looking wolverine   Thomas Quine
In an Arctic dusk a polar bear approaches its claw budgeoned seal prey   Boris Dzhingarov
The cougar’s gruesome leftovers.   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Even mighty musk oxen must rest.   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Is anything cuter than a baby beaver?   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
In the raccoon diorama’s background: a (painted) barred owl!   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Footprints of a snowshoe hare   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Look for little guys on the ground in the dioramas!   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Detail in the wolf diorama: the owl-seeing one!   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
A lifelike opossum watches from above.   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
A snowshoe hare hides from a lynx.   BorealFox / Atlas Obscura User
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

The Hall of North American Mammals was first developed by the American Museum of Natural History in the late 1930s, which commissioned the master taxidermist Robert Rockwell to produce a gallery of dioramas. When it finally opened to the public in 1942, the hall became a sensation with visitors who were able to glimpse the grandeur of the continent's nature and wildlife through these remarkable creations. 

There are over 45 dioramas in the hall displaying different mammal species native to Canada, the United States, and Northern Mexico, and are all standalone works of art. Each diorama captures a snapshot of a moment frozen in time, drawn forth from the imagination or recollections of taxidermists, artists, and scientists.

These long-dead animals are modeled in lifelike poses of arrested animation that are so spookily realistic it almost seems as if they could suddenly come back to life and smash through the glass. There are herds of enormous bison grazing phlegmatically on the dry grass of a sunbaked prairie, a climactic clash between two bull moose in a conifer forest, and a group of bighorn sheep at rest on an outcrop with the spectacular backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

But it is perhaps the dioramas that portray the great North American predators that are the most impressive. Here are packs of timber wolves bounding across the snow in pursuit of prey under a night sky illuminated by the hallucinatory colors of the aurora borealis. A jaguar prowls over boulders as a pastel-colored dawn unfolds across an Arizona canyon, and a pair of hulking grizzly bears swagger menacingly across a windswept Alaskan tundra.  

The drama of the lives of the smaller creatures of North America are also captured wonderfully. As you walk the hall and peer through the windows you may glimpse a diorama showing a family of armadillo feeding on an anthill, or a group of beavers gnawing through pine trees, or the midnight feast of a rogueish raccoon. Here too are the smaller carnivores such as coyotes uttering their mournful howls by a flowing river and a melancholy-looking wolverine surveying a barren landscape, to mention but a few. In recent years the hall has undergone a process of extensive renovation, and each of the dioramas has been painstakingly retouched by a team of museum conservationists. 

Related Tags

Dioramas Taxidermy Animals Museums Natural History Museums Natural History Art

Know Before You Go

The American Museum of Natural History is open from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. every day. Entrance is free, but it is strongly recommended to contribute a small donation to the museum to help with its upkeep and outstanding scientific work. Be sure to check out the other sections of the museum such as the African and Asian mammal halls, where you can find more of what are widely considered to be the best taxidermy dioramas in the world.

Community Contributors

Added By

Monsieur Mictlan

Edited By

Michelle Cassidy, BorealFox

  • Michelle Cassidy
  • BorealFox

Published

April 2, 2019

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Hall of North American Mammals
200 Central Park West
New York, New York
United States
40.781324, -73.973988
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Indian Rhinoceros Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Asiatic Leopard Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

African Elephants Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 405
Stories 89

Nearby Places

Indian Rhinoceros Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Asiatic Leopard Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

African Elephants Diorama

New York, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York

New York

New York

Places 405
Stories 89

Related Places

  • Rhesus monkey skull at the Booth Museum

    Brighton, England

    The Booth Museum of Natural History

    The natural history museum displaying the British bird collections and dioramas of Edward Booth, free of charge.

  • One of the leopards with its peacock prey.

    New York, New York

    Asiatic Leopard Diorama

    One of the most dazzling dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History is also one of the oldest.

  • Closeup of the elephant herd.

    New York, New York

    African Elephants Diorama

    This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

  • Jackals, marabou stork, and raven awaiting their turn.

    New York, New York

    Scavenger Taxidermy Diorama

    This morbid scene depicts the Darwinian drama of death on the African savannah.

  • A taxidermy hippo.

    Tervuren, Belgium

    Royal Museum for Central Africa Natural History Collections

    A fascinating and enormous collection of natural history exhibits stained by a dark colonial legacy.

  • The okapi diorama.

    New York, New York

    Okapi Taxidermy Diorama

    This impressive scene portrays the elusive forest giraffe of Central Africa.

  • Diorama depicting the sambar deer and Asiatic wild dog.

    New York, New York

    Sambar and Wild Dog Diorama

    This taxidermy scene brings the struggle for survival in the Indian jungle to a quiet corner of a Manhattan museum.

  • Mountain gorilla at the American Museum of Natural History.

    New York, New York

    Gorilla Diorama

    Creating this diorama spurred naturalist Carl Akeley to begin advocating to protect the apes.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.