American Museum of Natural History

The museum opened in 1871 and holds well over thirty million specimens, of which a small fraction is displayed. The fourth-floor fossil halls are arranged cladistically - as a branching family tree you walk through - rather than by period, which is unusual and takes a moment to grasp. The blue whale model hanging in the Hall of Ocean Life is about twenty-nine metres long; it was added in 1969 and refurbished in 2003. The Rose Center holds the Hayden Planetarium inside a sphere suspended in a glass cube. The Gilder Center, opened 2023, added a sprayed-concrete canyon of an atrium and an insectarium.

What to look for

• Fossil halls arranged as a family tree - not by geological period.
• A 29-metre blue whale - added in 1969 and refurbished in 2003.
• The Hayden Planetarium - a sphere inside a glass cube.
• The Gilder Center of 2023 - a sprayed-concrete atrium and insectarium.

When to go

Year round; weekday mornings are calmest. Half a day.

Practical notes

School groups fill the dinosaur halls on weekday mornings in term. Planetarium shows and special exhibitions cost extra and sell out. Some older dioramas have dated framing, which the museum has begun to annotate. It is very large - pick two floors.

Nearby

Central Park is across the street; the Met is on the east side.

Key facts