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Fabricating Wilderness: The Habitat Dioramas of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
144 pages, Hardcover
Published September 17, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 21, 2024
This is a phenomenal addition to the diorama studies literature and a great resource for the unique diorama history at this institution. The photographs are beautiful and the passages are wonderfully written.
September 4, 2025
The Natural History Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles recently had a special exhibit called “Reframing Dioramas”, which showcased the 100-year history of the museum’s dioramas and how they were made. This book tells that story.
The book describes the history of how the diorama halls were built and filled at the NHM. The book engages with the personalities that made these dioramas possible, the colonialism that allowed white hunters to kill African big game for the museum in the 1920’s and later, and the role of the diorama in communicating science to the public in museums across the country. The book also spends several chapters on the background art (done by several Hollywood scenery painters), the foreground materials, and the taxidermy that make up a diorama. All of this information is interspersed with historic photographs of the dioramas and their assembly process.
The whole book is a showcase of a now-kind-of-dated form of scientific engagement, but a fascinating one. The NHM is unusual among its peers because it still has 4 large halls of dioramas. This is due to a unique design of their dioramas: the front windows open so the displays can change. It’s very clear in this book how both the science and art of the diorama have changed in the past 100 years.
Overall, this book provided a fascinating yet accessible look at the history of the NHM’s dioramas and how they blend both science and art. The text provides enough information to understand the subject without being too technical or dull, and the pictures add a visual grounding to the written information. If you are at all interested in dioramas, I encourage you to check out both this book and the exhibits at the NHM LA.
The book describes the history of how the diorama halls were built and filled at the NHM. The book engages with the personalities that made these dioramas possible, the colonialism that allowed white hunters to kill African big game for the museum in the 1920’s and later, and the role of the diorama in communicating science to the public in museums across the country. The book also spends several chapters on the background art (done by several Hollywood scenery painters), the foreground materials, and the taxidermy that make up a diorama. All of this information is interspersed with historic photographs of the dioramas and their assembly process.
The whole book is a showcase of a now-kind-of-dated form of scientific engagement, but a fascinating one. The NHM is unusual among its peers because it still has 4 large halls of dioramas. This is due to a unique design of their dioramas: the front windows open so the displays can change. It’s very clear in this book how both the science and art of the diorama have changed in the past 100 years.
Overall, this book provided a fascinating yet accessible look at the history of the NHM’s dioramas and how they blend both science and art. The text provides enough information to understand the subject without being too technical or dull, and the pictures add a visual grounding to the written information. If you are at all interested in dioramas, I encourage you to check out both this book and the exhibits at the NHM LA.
October 5, 2025
Really interesting history of the dioramas! Quick read, great imagery. So much detail and history that you would never learn just from visiting and viewing the museum that helps set the stage for why we should care about this type of exhibit in the modern day.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews