One of the best natural history museums in America...

One of the best natural history museums in America and huge, but with rough edges.

Whether you're interested in animals, rocks, anthropology, history, dinosaurs, or culture the AMNH offers something for everyone in great quantities. Suggested admission is $22 as of 2017 but you can donate less for general admission.

The AMNH's top attractions are its dinosaurs, hominids, and animal diorama collections. There are world famous and historical famous fossils on display starting with Lucy, the australopithecus. The vast collection of the animal dioramas span many years of diorama techniques and presentation / art style. The meteoroid collection is pretty significant, too.

Where AMNH falls short is some of its human history exhibits. The African collection has not been updated in decades and is full of colonial haught and generalizations, often using "Africa" to describe every culture in the whole continent as one and using declarative, present-tense language even though the expeditions detailed in the exhibits are limited to small parts of Africa. They may be keeping it un-updated as historical examples of imperialist interpretations, but that's a bit subtle without any hints of self-criticism. The broken lights and unkept paint in much of the human history sections show that they just don't care, though, compared to the animal exhibits that have been revised and kept well. The culture and art collections are interesting, however, with a significant collection of central and south American artifacts.

The AMNH offers much to see, but it loses out to Carnegie Museum of Natural History in presentation quality for individual exhibit and as a whole. Most rooms have no curated paths that offer the best perspective and narrative, and you'd have to back-track many times to see all the exhibits. It doesn't match the spirit of public good and humanism of the National Museum of Natural History (the Smithsonian). However it's still a must-see and offers many artifacts that aren't available anywhere else.