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PEABODY MUSEUM: DINOSAURS AND SO MUCH MORE
NANCY THOMPSON |
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For decades, a field trip to Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History has been a rite of passage for young children studying dinosaurs. Where else could they find an assembled skeleton of a Brontosaurus, a plant-eater of the late Jurassic period known to many as Apatosaurus? Where else could they get up close and personal with the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex?
The Peabody is rightfully renown for the dinosaur exhibit in its Great Hall; the mural on the east wall has appeared in Life magazine, and author Michael Creighton consulted with the museum’s experts when he was writing “Jurassic Park.”
But to go to the Peabody and visit only the dinosaurs is to miss out on a remarkable assemblage of more than 11 million specimens and artifacts depicting life, here and elsewhere, past and present.
Peabody and Marsh
The museum was founded in 1866 with a gift from George Peabody, an international philanthropist who, by coincidence, was the uncle of a pioneer in the field of paleontology. Othniel Charles Marsh was the first professor of paleontology in North America and the Peabody Museum’s first director. “He was probably the first person to make a living at it,” said Armand Morgan, a member of the museum’s education staff.
The museum, initially located at the corner of Elm and High streets, was built as a research facility. Its location, as well as its mission, changed in 1925 when the current building, patterned after a French chateau that was destroyed during World War I, opened to the public. The research mission has continued, however, and scientists from around the world travel to the Peabody to study bones and other artifacts in the building’s basement.
At first glance, the structure appears to be a church, with neo-Gothic spires and an ornate brownstone entranceway. However, the giant squid suspended from the vaulted ceiling in the reception area removes any thought of churches and sets the stage for the rest of the museum’s wonders.
Bronto or apato?
The popularity of the Peabody’s dinosaur exhibit in the massive Great Hall is due in part to Mr. Marsh’s work in the 19th century. While other paleontologists had unearthed bones of prehistoric creatures and tried to assemble them as they once were, Marsh looked at them differently.
“Marsh reconstructed dinosaurs as drawings and gave the public an idea what they looked like,” Mr. Morgan said. “He was the first to do that.” He’s also the scientist who named some of the best-known dinosaurs: Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus and Triceratops.
The exhibit’s dinosaur skeletons are mostly from nineteenth-century digs in the western part of the country. They include the 65-foot-long Brontosaurus, which weighs about 6.5 tons as a skeleton. The animal itself probably weighed 30 to 40 tons, Mr. Morgan said. And while some might argue with the “Brontosaurus” name and insist that it is an Apatosaurus, the Peabody skeleton is made up of bones unearthed by Marsh in 1879, identified at that time as a different animal, and called Brontosaurus.
Scientists argued for decades about the two names and whether they were in fact two species before pretty much agreeing that they the same animal. So the skeleton at Peabody is an Apatosaurus but can properly be called a Brontosaurus. If that’s confusing, ask any first-grader to explain.
The Great Hall is the site of “The Age of Reptiles,” a 110-foot mural painted in the 1940s by Rudolph Zallinger. As a senior art student at Yale, Mr. Zallinger was approached by his advisor and asked if he would be interested in adding some decoration to the museum. He agreed, but since he was an artist, not a paleontologist, he had to start by devoting six month to an intensive study of dinosaurs. He talked with paleontologists at the museum and spent a year developing a miniature 1-foot by 6.5-foot version of the mural. Once the plan was in place, he spent 3 1/2 years painting the wall using a Renaissance technique known as fresco secco. The project was finished in 1947 and won the Pulitzer Award for Painting two years later.
The mural’s success and popularity led to an encore performance by Mr. Zallinger, who returned to Yale in the 1960s to use the same techniques to paint a second mural, “The Age of Mammals.” Another famous skeleton in the Peabody’s Great Hall is Deinonychus antirrhopus, discovered in Montana in the mid-1960s by Yale’s John H. Ostrom. While not well known by its official name, the dinosaur was the role model for the velociraptors in Mr. Creighton’s “Jurassic Park.” According to Mr. Morgan, the author called the scientist to talk about the dinosaur while he was writing his book.
Mammals and minerals
Visitors who venture out of the world of dinosaurs find themselves transported to slightly more modern times in the museum’s Hall of Mammalian Evolution. The hall is home to Mr. Zallinger’s second mural, as well as to the skeleton of an 11,000-year-old ground sloth with a patch of original fur. The extinct sloth, discovered in New Mexico in 1928, is one of several examples of early mammals on display.
The Hall of Minerals showcases many specimens including amethyst, malachite, tourmaline and azurite along with special sections focusing on the geology of southern New England, minerals of New England and a 192-pound copper nugget found near East Rock in New Haven more than 100 years ago.
Dioramas and a mummy
The museum’s dioramas depict lifelike scenes from throughout North America, with a special section for scenes from southern New England. It’s almost impossible to tell where the real specimens end and the painted walls begin, and if some sites in the southern New England scenes look familiar, it’s because the artists used real places when designing the dioramas.
The “Daily Life in Ancient Egypt” display is relatively small, but it boasts, among other attractions, a mummy, along with modern-day X-rays that offer some insight into the cause of death.
New dino, new plans
The museum’s newest attraction, dedicated in October, is a life-sized bronze statue of a torosaurus. The statue, designed and created by Michael Anderson, one of the museum’s preparators, depicts a dinosaur similar to the better-known triceratops. The process of making a two-story-high, three-ton bronze statue of an animal that lived 66 million years ago will be the subject of a special on Connecticut Public Television on January 24 at 9 p.m., with repeat showings January 28 at 10:30 a.m. and January 29 at 6 p.m. Museum officials are proud of their newest dinosaur. “We’ve got a world-class piece of art there,” said museum Director Michael Donoghue. “I think it will become symbolic of Peabody and an icon for the city of New Haven.” Mr. Donoghue, who has been the museum’s director for three years, said the museum is “a huge scientific resource” that has less than 1 percent of its specimens on display at any given time and attracts about 500 research scientists each year. As director, he is working to emphasize the museum’s public programs and exhibits. “We’re trying to have a much more aggressive public exhibitry with a different exhibit every six months,” he said.
The current temporary exhibit, “Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas,” was created by the Peabody and has been on display throughout the United States, including Los Angeles, Houston and Denver. It will return to the road in August and be replaced in September by an exhibit about life in the universe. Who knows? Maybe there are dinosaurs out there, too. CTL
Info box:
The Peabody Museum of Natural History is located at 170 Whitney Avenue in New Haven, about five minutes from I-91. Take Exit 3 (Trumbull Street) and turn right at the second intersection (Whitney Avenue). Follow signs for the museum, which is located one block to the north at the corner of Whitney and Sachem streets. Parking is available in Yale Lot #33, on the left one block beyond the museum. Go to the end of the entrance drive, turn left and go to the second yellow gate. There is a $1 fee for parking during the week; parking is free on weekends in all Yale lots.
The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The museum is closed January 1, Easter, July 4, Thanksgiving and December 24 and 25. Some exhibits are closed in the morning because of school group programs. It’s best to call ahead or plan to visit after 1 p.m.
For more information, call 203-432-5050 or log onto www.peabody.yale.edu.
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Nancy Thompson is the editor of Connecticut LIFE. A long-time Haddam resident, she has been a professional writer and photographer for more than 30 years. Article reprinted by permission of Connecticut LIFE.
Nancy Thompson
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