The American Museum of Natural History is the biggest ever natural history museum worldwide, and is situated in NYC. It consist of a number of building, which are connected to each other. They accommodate a number of exhibition halls, a variety of research laboratories, teaching facilities, and a natural history research library. A large number of scientific expeditions have been sponsored by the museum ever since 1871 around the world, thereby acquiring more than 320 lakh artifacts.

The exhibitions of the museum also have displays which show items related to anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, paleontology and biology. There are some anthropological halls which are dedicated to people from Asia, Africa and the Pacific. There are a number of halls which are dedicated to the native Americans of North Americans. The history which humans beings have in common with other beings, the different stages of evolution that humans have undergone, and the characteristics which make humans a unique species are all examined in the 'Hall of Human Origins'. They even have a hall which houses everything about meteorites!

The natural 'homes' of species, which include African & North American mammals and other ocean life are depicted by a number of displays (the 'ocean life' display even have a 94 feet replica of a blue whale!). A refurbishment of the really popular dino and fossil hall took nearly 7 years and was finished in 1996. The fossil halls contain a large number of specimens and is the work of nearly 100 years of research carried out by scientists of the museum, who try to depict how the vertebrates evolved. The five - storey exhibit of Barosaurus, a dinosaur which eats plants, is the biggest standing dinosaur exhibit!

This museum was opened in 1869, it being the brainchild of a number of public - spirited people, the leader among them being the naturalist Albert S. Bickmore, who is the founding president. The other founders also included people like Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., John Pierpont Morgan and Charles Anderson Dana. The museum was initially located in a building in Central Park, which was known as the 'Arsenal'. It's current site came into being in 1877. The first American Museum - Hayden Planetarium finished construction in 1935, and, another addition worth noting, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Building, finished construction in 1936. The museum gets funding from the city of NY as well as private contributions from individuals and companies.