Life Across The Pond

Field Trip

I stopped by the American Museum of Natural History this afternoon to check out the somewhat controversial Darwin exhibit. Unfortunately, this was only my second trip to this museum. As a friend pointed out, it's somewhat dated in design - some of the wings look old, not in the classical Greek architecture kind of way but more of the Brady Bunch early 70's kind of way - but there's still something about this particular museum that others in NY seem to lack. Kids.

And while I'm not generally a fan of kids - at least not on airplanes, in restaurants, at bars - seeing the pride on a kid's face when he's figured out that the skeleton in the plexiglass display is that of a fur seal or the look of excitement of one kid running to show his friend the live iguana display that he's found just around the corner makes you just that much more enthusiastic about being there yourself.

As for the Darwin exhibit, I enjoyed it. If you do happen to go by, somewhere past the model of the HMS Beagle and that live iguana, there's a couple pages of a letter written to Darwin from his wife that's worth a read.

posted by Peter @ 12:28 AM