Surprises at the American Museum of Natural History

In October, Ryan and I traveled up to New York City for a long weekend. During our visit, we stopped by the American Museum of Natural History.

This was my first visit to the city and thus the museum, but Ryan had been there numerous times before. He suggested the “New York State Environment” exhibit as a starting point. That man knew exactly what he was doing!

As I took my time moving from diorama to diorama reading about soil types and fauna and farming techniques, Ryan patiently waited, knowing a surprise was lurking ahead in the “North American Forests” exhibit.

Soon enough I went around a corner to find a 300 foot cross section of a 1300 year old giant Sequoia tree! It made me happy and giddy and at thirty-four years of age, I got to experience the same sense of marvel and discovery eleven year Jacal had the other week at Fun Junktion.

HUGE surprise!

There was another surprise in the exhibit that Ryan did not anticipate. I spent a lot of time at the dioramas looking for familiar vegetation and reading the legends of what tree is what. I came to one display and as I was reading the literature, I saw there was an American Chestnut listed.

“What?!? Where?!?”

I looked back up at the diorama, but still didn’t see it.

Do you see the American Chestnut?

I consulted the legend again and found the tree. It’s in the background.

It’s the dead one. 🙂

American Chestnut in the Diorama

And later there was another display that explained why the tree was dead.

Sac Fungi Display

Although they weren’t the happiest depictions, I’m glad the American Chestnut was not forgotten and still included in the museum. And I’m sure one day, the curators will have to revise their exhibit to accommodate a very different appearance from the tree. 🙂