Today I gave the 11:15 tour at the museum. We started in the Akley Hall of African Mammals.
The hall is named after Carl Akley who is responsible for it's conception and design. Akley developed the unique techniques used for mounting the animals and led the expeditions to Africa to collect them.
The hall was opened in 1936, although Akley died in Africa, on expedition for the museum,in 1926. The hall was completed by his wife Mary Jobe Akley. In addition to the elephants there are 24 dioramas that span 2 floors.
He was really an amazing man. Each exhibit in the museum has a story. Not only are the subjects exciting, be it elephants or a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but the endeavor required to acquire them always amazes me.
More on this in later posts.
Here are 2 people who took my tour today. They are from Brazil! They're students attending university and working as au pairs. They live in New Jersey.
I attempted to get a picture of them by the Star of India in the hall of Gems but the flash obscures the gem.
But still..., it's really a great picture.
They took my email address and maybe I'll hear from them.
Thanks for this interesting post. The bit about the dioramas reminded me of this book http://amzn.to/95mggH (have you seen it?) Would you be willing to go into more detail about the dioramas in the future --perhaps devote an entire post to the ones you find most interesting?
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