by Colin Davey
First published 2019
The American Museum of Natural History spans four city blocks across from Central Park, but its creation involved far more than architecture. Colin Davey traces how this beloved institution grew from a desolate Manhattan swamp into one of the world's largest museums. The story weaves together backroom political deals, personal ambitions, and historical upheavals from 1869 to today. Corrupt Boss Tweed, city planner Andrew Haswell Green, and powerbroker Robert Moses all left their mark on the sprawling complex. Museum presidents like Morris Jesup and Henry Fairfield Osborn shaped its mission alongside polar explorers, dinosaur hunters, and German rocket scientists. Davey devotes special attention to the Hayden Planetarium's evolution from early astronomy exhibits through Clyde Fisher's original planetarium to Neil deGrasse Tyson's Rose Center. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, the book reveals how wars, economic downturns, and Cold War politics influenced the museum's development. Readers gain insight into both New York's cultural history and the complex forces that build major institutions.
Genres: history, 20th-century, american, 21st-century, 19th-century, museums, architecture, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: behind-the-scenes, institutional-history
Setting: American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Manhattan, New York City
Period: 1869, Cold War
352 pages · Kindle Edition · Fordham University Press