American Museum of Natural History

Yesterday was my first day off since I quit my job and the possibilities were endless.  I opted for the American Museum of Natural History near Central Park West.  I especially wanted to see the Silk Road exhibit because I taught a unit on the Silk Road when I was a social studies teacher. 

I got to the museum right after it opened and the ticket seller told me this exhibit was "really good" and "no one was there." My entry ticket was for 15 minutes later.  I don't know what happened during those 15 minutes but the ticket taker at the exhibit warned me that 300 students just entered.  She wasn't kidding.  Let's just say I made the most of the situation.

The exhibit brought back a lot of what I taught. It was neat to see the various silver, pottery, art, tools, silks, etc.  There were live silk worms and I spoke to a museum representative who was watching over them.  She told me they are very sensitive to temperature and noise so they were in a sound-proof, climate-controlled case.  She also said they evolved in such a way as to be totally dependent on humans. For example, when they finish eating a mulberry leaf they will starve to death if there is not another immediately by them because they won't crawl six inches to get to food; they "choose" to die.

 If they don't die by their own "choice" then they die in their silk cocoons at the hand of man.  They are boiled in their cocoons because, if they come out of them, they ruin the long silk thread.  (One thread is between 1,000 - 3,000 feet long and it is actually produced from the worm's salivary glands.)  The cocoons (not pictured here) in the museum were white but they must have been bleached as the web sites I've since read all show the cocoons as yellow.  (This web site, in particular, has some great pictures of the whole process.)  As you can tell, I am fascinated.

I wandered the museum on my own for awhile and then caught up with one of the free tours. The tour was interesting in that it was not just about the exhibits but what was behind the exhibits - including the extensive travel to exotic sites where artists and photographers captured the actual environments of the various animals so they could recreate these environments in dioramas when they came back.  The lighting was impressive, too, as the coyotes and owls were shown hunting in the dark.  Exhibits with these dioramas looked extremely authentic.

I especially enjoyed the bird exhibit.  It had cranes, owls, hawks, eagles, loons, ducks, and more unusual birds.  I learned that the wood stork is the only type of stork in the United States.  It made me wonder why, given we have so few, this is the bird of legend that delivers babies (and Vlasic pickles).  Turns out the legend started in Europe.  (Read more here if you are curious.)

In my meandering around the museum I also saw a Kenyan saying that spoke to me:

Take care of the earth.  It is not given to your by your parents but on loan to you from your children. 

There were so many other interesting exhibits.  I spent about three hours in the museum and I probably could have spent twice that.  Here are just a few of the other things that grabbed my attention.

This wasn't one of the beautiful dioramas, obviously, but I loved all of the owls.  Notice how tiny some are.  Did you know that some owls burrow in the ground?  (I couldn't...and can't...think too much about how they wound up in a glass case.)          They are such beautiful creatures. I've heard them several times but only saw one "in real life" when I was camping on a small island off the northern tip of Vancouver Island, BC and it swooped over our heads. 

Another interesting item was this shawl or blanket made from spider's silk. (Yup, spiders. Golden Orb spiders, to be precise.) It's the only such item in the world and it is soon leaving the museum to return to Madagascar. It was very intriguing.

This boat was used by the natives of the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.  The artistry and carvings on it were beautiful and told a story.  The boat was made from one cedar tree.  What a feat, especially considering it was all done by hand. It, and some of the stories the tour guide told, reminded me of my kayaking trip in the Inside Passage and what I learned during that trip.  (The same trip where I saw the owl.)  It was a pleasant reminder of that trip, as were all of the totems and masks on display nearby.

This piece was amazing.  It looks like a "blob" of steel but it actually grew it a mine in China. The explanation at the bottom of the displayed described how the "rods" grow squared and therefore resemble processed metal.   

Finally, I left the museum and walked on the outskirts of Central Park.  I was so pleased to see the daffodils. I roamed through the park and back to my apartment, content I had been able to see the museum and with lots of food for thought.