Windows on Nature: The Great
Habitat Dioramas of the American
Museum of Natural History by
Stephen Christopher Quinn
Fascinating Look At The Dioramas At Museum Of Natural History
New York Citys American Museum of Natural History is a national
treasure, attracting four million visitors annually. Its dioramas-a dazzling
mixture of nature, science, and art-have inspired young and old alike, and
are world-renowned examples of the unique diorama craft: art in the
service of science. Now, in the only book of its kind, readers get an
insiders view of these windows on nature, witnessing their creation step by
meticulous step.
More than forty of the museums finest dioramas are featured here,
depicting the fauna and flora of myriad ecological environments. Stephen
Quinn, a diorama artist at the museum, introduces the explorers,

naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind
these three-dimensional marvels, and explains how their collaborations
make the displays so lifelike. This enchanting book is the perfect gift for
nature lovers, art enthusiasts, and museum goers everywhere.
Personal Review: Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat
Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History by
Stephen Christopher Quinn
There is nowhere beneath a roof, anywhere on earth, that means more to
me than the great diorama halls of The American Museum of Natural
History. It is stunning (and, really, rather sad) that it has taken this long for
a popular book to be written about these magnificent works of art and
science, but at least it has been done well. (It is also gratifying to see the
book getting such good--and well deserved--reviews here.)
For many millions of people habitat dioramas have been their first taste of
the beauty, calm, and nobility of wild creatures and wild places. More
people are familiar with nature documentaries these days, and since I love
good documentaries too I can't really complain about that. Nonetheless
there are some things that habitat dioramas, when done well, can convey
that the flickering image, even on an IMAX screen, just can't. No medium
portrays the spacious calm of wild country, and the simple dignity of wild
animals, better than dioramas. It's also important to remember the
valuable record dioramas can provide: many of the dioramas in this book
are of places no longer wild.
Stephen Quinn's credentials for writing this book are probably as good as
anyone alive. He started as an artist for the museum and has been an
important force in helping keep the medium alive through the dark years of
the 60s to 80s, when across the U.S. it was frequently neglected, if not
despised, by curators though not, blessedly, by the general public. Things
are at least somewhat better now, and Mr. Quinn is now project manager
for exhibitions at the museum. He has done a fine job with this book. The
text is engaging and informative and the photos are big and beautiful.
I do have a few quibbles. He sometimes uses the word "captured" for
animals collected (read killed) for the dioramas. I'm sympathetic with why
he felt he had to do that, given what he's trying to do with the book and
given the cultural forces with which he must contend. The moral issues
behind hunting and museum collection are complex and beyond what a
book like this could be expected to cover. Nonetheless, animals are never
"captured" for taxidermy.
I should hasten to add that animals do not need to be killed specifically for
taxidermy. Many if not most animals mounted for museums in the last few
decades died in zoos, were hit by automobile traffic, etc. That generally
was not a realistic option at the time these dioramas were created.

My other reservation is deeper, but harder to articulate, and I don't have a
real solution to it. I also know that a lot of readers will be unsympathetic
with it. I'm not completely comfortable with "behind the scenes" stuff in
anything other than technical manuals, trade magazines, etc. The people
who made these dioramas were of course just people but had high ideals
(ideals that Mr. Quinn without question shares) and they wanted the
dioramas to be about their _subjects_. His behind the scenes writing will
engage people more with the medium and is interesting in itself, no
argument. But how much does it really help to have people thinking "I
wonder if that rock in Diorama Z is the one that employees used to go to
make out behind on their lunch hour."?
I don't know the answer, and so I can't really fault the author. I also
recognize that many of the reviewers here loved that aspect of the book.
My hope, and I'm sure it's the author's as well, is that it will all stay in
perspective. Let's hope that's right. It would be very sad to see dioramas
become the subject of the kind of psychologizing and trivializing that
permeates the world of "fine" art.
That said, this is a beautiful and well-written book about a noble, if often
neglected, realm of art and natural history. If you've read through a long
review like this one about a book on this subject, I promise you won't regret
owning it.
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