American Museum of Natural History

The museum opened in 1869 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-eight metres and was remodelled in 2003 after the original 1969 version was found anatomically wrong in places. 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 you actually see

• Fossil halls arranged as a family tree - not by geological period.
• A 28-metre blue whale - remodelled in 2003 for accuracy.
• 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.

Honest expectations

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.