User:Pictile/American Museum of Natural History

Important Expeditions
'''-Carl Akeley, an American born naturalist and taxidermist who is known to be the father of taxidermy, had numerous bountiful expeditions to Africa. During his first expedition to Africa in 1896, he was able to collect hundreds of animal specimens of various species and origins for preservation and museum collection building back in the United States. Another notable expedition in 1905 led to the collection of two Bull Elephants and 17 tons of animal specimens in total. He stated that the expeditions were to educate the general public on Africa's vanishing wildlife; but in the end--during an expedition to field collect Gorillas, took steps away from field collecting to work to build a Mountain Gorilla conservatory.'''

'''-Frank Chapman, an American Ornithologist, did a significant amount of the collecting for the bird halls of the museum--aswell as very influential scientific research on the problems of zonal evolution; to which he is greatly recognized for. His most notable expedition was to Colombia in 1911, specifically with artist Louis Agassiz Fuertez plus the assistance of biologists W. B. Richardson and Leo E. Miller. They collected a very significant amount of bird specimens for scientific aswell as collection purposes and took photographs of the natural setting they were present in. It was during this expedition that the Faunal Zones research came into fruition due to the researches close ties to the Andes Mountain Range. During their time in South America they collected approximately 15,775 birds and 1600 mammals for current and future research---plus the collection of the American Museum of Natural History.'''

'-Robert Peary, accompanied by Mathew Henson and a few other Inuit guides, returned to Greenland in 1894 to unearth the Cape York Meteorite (known also by the names "Saviksoah" by the indigenous community present and "Ahnighito"'' by Peary). The Meterorite had been used by the indigenous community in the area for centuries, being a source of iron for the community to make tools and weapons with. Peary removed the meteorite and sold it to the American Museum of Natural History for around 40,000 dollars (which is around 1.3 million today). Peary also convinced and brought back with him 6 Inuit people to the United States for anthropologist Franz Boaz, who currently worked at the museum and wanted to study Inuit peoples.'''