American Museum of Natural History

Upon our recent field trip I began to think about other museums in the area that I'd possibly like to visit and compare to our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One museum that crossed my mind was the American Museum of Natural History. I don't know much of this museum other than what I've seen in Ben Stiller's "Night at the Museum." So I decided to do a little more research to see what I could find out about it.

The museum is located in Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. It was founded on April 6th, 1869 by Albert Smith Bickmore with the support of William E. Dodge Jr., Theodore Roosevelt Sr., Joseph Choate, and J. Pierpont Morgan. Since the opening the museum has moved and been renovated several times adding more and more exhibits. The most recent renovation being in 2009 where they restored the 77th Street "Castle" facade. cleaning the masonry along the south side as well as complete reconstruction of the arch of the porte-cochere.

Today the museum has over 43 permanent exhibitions and is currently holding 6 temporary exhibitions. Among all of these you can find Theodore Roosevelt's Memorial, multiple fossil exhibits, and even exhibits based around Native Americans. There is a huge variety of artifacts at this museum that range from the ocean to outer-space and everything in between. I definitely wouldn't mind taking a trip there.


Theodore Roosevelt Statue


Barosaurus in the Theodore Roosevelt Retunda


Lower Level


First Floor


Second Floor


Third Floor

Fourth Floor

All information and pictures were found at http://amnh.org

An Intro to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Considering we are visiting the Met later this month, I figured it would be a good time to give a little blurb about what we will be seeing.
The idea of the MET came about in 1866 when a group of Parisian men decided they wanted to bring "a national institution and gallery of art" to the American people. John Jay, the proposer of the idea, worked hard to get the high class people of New York City to donate money to his cause. Finally, after working with the city and it's leaders, the MET was opened to the public on April 13th, 1870, and it acquired its first artifact, a Roman sarcophagus, on November 20th of the same year.
Located at 1000 fifth ave., the MET is one of New York City's most popular tourist travel spots. It welcomes over 5 million visitors each year. The artifacts in the museum date back as far as 300,000 BC.
Below are some pictures of the museum and some of the most precious artifacts that we will be seeing there:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inside the Museum

Roman Sarcophagus, the first artifact at the MET

Egypt without leaving your couch

Teleportation does not exist. I am sorry if I just brought this fact to your attention but its true. Virtual teleportation, however, is very plausible. You can literally go from your couch to the pyramids of Giza by simply typing in a url. Giza 3D is the brain child of Dassault Systems. This interactive software allows the users to take an in depth look at the pyramids while also giving the users the inside scoop to their construction.

Compared to most informational websites about the pyramids, Giza 3D takes the cake. For one, it's in 3D, meaning if you have 3D on your computer you can literally have the pyramids sitting on your lap. But if you do not have 3D technology, it is easy to get lost in the pyramids. By clicking play, the viewer is transported into the depths of the pyramid. Essentially, the video enlightens the user to what the pyramids looked like when they were first constructed. It is a personal guided tour that details individual rooms and chambers with the realistic hieroglyphs. With the use of a scroll down menu, one can click on what area of the Giza plateau he or she would like to explore. Simple as that, and you do not even have to buy a plane ticket.

This 3D museum technology is being applied to similar archeology sites such as Urkur and the American Civil War grounds. What does the future of tourism look like? If it is so easy to click to a location, does one have to physically be there to enjoy its grandeur? With technology, tourism is headed in a completely cyber direction. All the information anyone would need one the pyramids of Giza is online, so why explore for real?


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/us/03iht-educledeweb01.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1349269444-VozdpW+xDzJigUMTz5fMjA
http://giza3d.3ds.com/index.html#discover