Interesting facts about the American Museum of Natural History

Things you probably didn’t know about AMNH

1. Home to the first discovered T-rex skeleton

AMNH houses one of the most extensive dinosaur fossil collections, including the first-ever discovered Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, Triceratops, and the towering Titanosaur.

2. The iconic Blue Whale model

One of the museum’s most popular attractions is the life-size, 94-foot-long model of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling of the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The whale is so huge, it takes three entire days to clean it.

3. The Titanosaur barely fits

The museum’s Titanosaur, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, is so massive (122 feet long) that it had to be posed with its head and neck sticking out of the exhibit room into the hallway.

4. There’s a hidden time capsule

The museum was tasked with safekeeping The Times Capsule, commissioned by The New York Times Magazine and designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. The five-foot stainless-steel vessel, set to be opened in the year 3000, has inside its crevices Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, a Purple Heart from the Vietnam War, a cellphone, and more.

5. The original T-Rex had the wrong pose

Did you know the T-rex didn’t actually stand upright? When the museum first mounted its Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in 1915, it was incorrectly posed standing upright like a kangaroo. It wasn’t corrected until 1993 to show a more scientifically accurate, horizontal stance.

6. See a rare meteorite with a hole in it

The museum’s Willamette Meteorite, the largest found in North America, has a natural hole worn through it by water erosion. Some Native American tribes consider it a sacred object.

7. The museum used to host sleepovers

An inspiration for the Night at the Museum movies, the exhibition used to host sleepovers for kids and adults after hours. This activity is now unavailable until further notice from AMNH.

8. The Star of India – a massive sapphire

The museum's Hall of Gems and Minerals houses the Star of India, a 563-carat sapphire, one of the largest in the world. The gem was once stolen from the museum in 1964 but was recovered within days.

9. Some dioramas contain real human remains

A few of the anthropological dioramas, like the head of the Vereaux Brothers' mannequin, contain actual human skulls and teeth, particularly those created decades ago when scientific ethics were different. Today, the museum follows strict guidelines regarding such displays.