| The American Museum of Natural History is a | | | | bathroom window they had unlocked hours |
| landmark on the Upper West Side, Manhattan, | | | | before the museum was closed. The Star of |
| New York, USA. The museum has a scientific | | | | India and other gems were later recovered |
| staff of more than 200, and sponsors over 100 | | | | from a locker in a Miami bus station, but the |
| special field expeditions each year.[1] | | | | Eagle Diamond was never found; it may have |
| | | | been recut or lost.[citation needed] |
| History | | | | |
| | | | Famous names associated with the museum |
| The Museum was founded in 1869 and until | | | | include the paleontologist and geologist |
| construction of the first building of the | | | | Henry Fairfield Osborn, president for many |
| current complex was completed, was housed in | | | | years; the dinosaur-hunter of the Gobi |
| the old Arsenal building in Central Park. | | | | Desert, Roy Chapman Andrews (one of the |
| Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of the | | | | inspirations for Indiana Jones); George |
| 26th U.S. President, was one of the founders | | | | Gaylord Simpson; biologist Ernst Mayr; |
| with William E. Dodge, Jr., Joseph Choate, | | | | pioneer cultural anthropologists Franz Boas |
| and J. Pierpont Morgan. The founding of the | | | | and Margaret Mead; and ornithologist Robert |
| Museum realized the dream of naturalist Dr. | | | | Cushman Murphy. J. P. Morgan was also among |
| Albert S. Bickmore. Bickmore, a one-time | | | | the famous benefactors of the Museum. |
| student of Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz, | | | | |
| lobbied tirelessly for years for the | | | | Library |
| establishment of a natural history museum in | | | | |
| New York. His proposal, backed by his | | | | From its founding in 1869, the Library of the |
| powerful sponsors, won the support of the | | | | American Museum of Natural History has grown |
| Governor of New York, John Thompson Hoffman, | | | | into one of the world's great natural history |
| who signed a bill officially creating the | | | | collections. In its early years, the Library |
| American Museum of Natural History on April | | | | expanded its collection mostly through such |
| 6, 1869. | | | | gifts as the John C. Jay conchological |
| | | | library, the Carson Brevoort library on |
| In 1874, ground was broken for the first | | | | fihses and general zoology, the |
| building, now hidden from view by the many | | | | ornithological library of Daniel Giraud |
| buildings in the complex that today occupy | | | | Elliot, the Harry Edwards entomological |
| most of Manhattan Square. The original | | | | library, the Hugh Jewett collection of |
| neo-Gothic building(1874–1877), by | | | | voyages and travel and the Jules Marcou |
| Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, who were | | | | geology collection. In 1903 the American |
| collaborating with Frederick Law Olmsted in | | | | Ethnological Society deposited its library in |
| structures for Central Park, was soon | | | | the Museum and in 1905 the New York Academy |
| eclipsed by the South range of the museum, by | | | | of Sciences followed suit by transferring its |
| J. Cleaveland Cady, a robust exercise in | | | | collection of 10,000 volumes. Today, the |
| rusticated brownstone neo-Romanesque, | | | | Library's collections contain over 450,000 |
| influenced by H. H. Richardson. A triumphal | | | | volumes of monographs, serials, pamphlets and |
| Roman entrance on Central Park West, (see | | | | reprints, microforms, and original |
| illustration), the New York State Memorial to | | | | illustrations, as well as film, photographic, |
| Theodore Roosevelt completed by John Russell | | | | archives and manuscripts, fine art, |
| Pope in 1936, is an overscaled Beaux-Arts | | | | memorabilia and rare book collections. The |
| monument. It leads to a vast Roman basilica, | | | | Library collects materials covering such |
| where a cast of a skeleton of a rearing | | | | subjects as mammalogy, geology, anthropology, |
| Barosaurus defending her young from an | | | | entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, |
| Allosaurus is not lost in the general | | | | paleontology, ethology, ornithology, |
| monumentality. | | | | mineralogy, invertebrates, systematics, |
| | | | ecology, oceanography, conchology, |
| On October 29, 1964, the Star of India, along | | | | exploration and travel, history of science, |
| with several other precious gems including | | | | museology, bibliography, and peripheral |
| the Eagle Diamond and the de Long Ruby, was | | | | biological sciences. The collection is rich |
| stolen from the museum by several thieves. | | | | in retrospective materials - some going back |
| The group of burglars, which included Jack | | | | to the 15th century - that are difficult to |
| Murphy, gained entrance by climbing through a | | | | find elsewhere. |