The National Museum of Natural History opened in its current building in 1910 and stewards a collection of 148 million specimens and artifacts that tell the history of the planet and are a record of human interaction with the environment and one another. Beneath the Doric and Ionic columns, semi-circular clerestory windows, and Guastavino tiled ceiling of the central rotunda, Henry the 13-foot-tall, 11-ton African elephant raises his trunk toward the oculus. Is he waving 'hello!' or holding up the dome?

05.19.24