Boxes from the American Museum of Natural History Accession Card ArchiveH. Knapp/© AMNH
NICHOLAS MARCELLUS HENTZ
Nicholas Marcellus Hentz (French American, 1797-1856) was born in France and emigrated to the United States as a young adult educated in medicine and the art of miniature painting. This combination of studies led the pioneering zoologist to an interest in entomology, specifically spiders. He is regarded as American’s first arachnologist and was one of the first scientists to collect and describe North American Spiders.[1] During his career, he identified 141 unique species, and his name is memorialized posthumously in several more. In 1970, Charity Cole, a descendant of Hentz, found and donated 209 of his watercolor paintings and notes to the Museum collection dating from 1820-1840.[2] The extraordinary characteristics of his drawings and dedicated notes reflect a persistent commitment to his life’s work and they illustrate two works by and about Hentz: Descriptions and figures of the Araneides of the United States. (Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History, v. 4, no. 1 (Jan. 1842)-v. 6 (1857); and The spiders of the United States: a collection of the arachnological writings of Nicholas Marcellus Hentz / edited by Edward Burgess. 1875. (Occasional papers of the Boston Society of Natural History, v. 2).
TOSHIO ASAEDA
Toshio Asaeda (Japanese, 1893-1968) arrived in New York City by 1924 and began working under the instruction of American Museum of Natural History Museum explorer and taxidermist James Lippitt Clark (American, 1883-1969). Asaeda participated in multiple expeditions as a painter and photographer around the South Pacific, Central America, and South America.[3] He donated a series of 21 watercolor paintings on paper of coral reef fishes from such travels to the collection. Most notably, Asaeda is credited with contributing to the mold of an Easter Island Moai statue on the Templeton Crocker Pacific Expedition in 1934-35 which was the basis for the cast in the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples that remains one of the Museum’s highlights today.[4] During WWII, Asaeda and his wife were relocated to an internment camp in Utah where he continued to create art focused on camp life. After the war, he relocated to California.
IGNAZ MATAUSCH
Ignaz Matausch (Austrian American, 1859-1915) was a trained entomologist acclaimed for his enormous insect models like this malaria-carrying mosquito previously in the Hall of Public Health and now located in the Hall of North American Forests. Arriving at the Museum in 1904, he drew inspiration and knowledge from his examination of living and dissected specimens in the Entomology Department. Matausch formed his works using modeling clay and then plaster of Paris molds that were hollowed out, covered in a wax composition, and stabilized with wiring and lacquered. As a highly exceptional scientific artist, the ultra-magnified scale and precise details of his impressive models were unmatched.[5]
ARTHUR AUGUST JANSSON
Arthur August Jansson (American, 1890-1960) was a background painter of animal habitat groups in exhibit halls featuring dioramas. In 1926-27, the artist accompanied the Akeley-Eastman-Pomeroy African Hall Expedition aimed at collecting specimens, materials, and depictions of the surrounding landscape for the establishment of an African Hall.[6] Jansson and fellow American Museum of History artist William Robinson Leigh (American, 1866-1955) sketched paintings in the field as references for their large-scale background paintings in the modern diorama displays.
WALTER HOWLISON MACKENZIE “ZARH” PRITCHARD
Walter Howlison Mackenzie “Zarh” Pritchard (British American, 1866-1956) was known for his unusual technique utilizing a diving suit, helmet, weighted easel, and waterproof materials to paint underwater. [7] Before the invention of underwater color photography, this remarkable method allowed the viewer to experience otherworldly tropical environments through a unique aquatic perspective. Prichard said of himself, “I am not an artist at all. I am a naturalist who happens to be a painter.” [8]
BESSIE POTTER VONNOH
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872-1955) was a plaster and bronze sculptor that made history when she became the first woman sculptor represented in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. [9] In 1939, she created a powerful bust of Ornithology Curator Frank M. Chapman (American, 1864-1945) in honor of his 75th birthday. Today, the sculpture can be spotted between the Hall of Primates and the Hall of North American Birds. You can also visit Vonnoh’s most well-known sculpture, the Frances Hodgson Burnett Memorial Fountain, which celebrates the author’s literary achievements, across the street in Central Park.
CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH
Charles Hamilton Smith (British, 1776-1859) was a self-taught illustrator, naturalist, antiquarian, and soldier. From a young age, he enjoyed sketching and documenting his adventures. During his military career, Smith traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and the West Indies allowing him a glimpse of life and nature in lands foreign to him. After he retired from service, he devoted his life to historical and zoological studies. His productive character led him to write extensively, and his publications were mostly illustrated by his own drawings. Of the estimated 38,000 drawings and notes left upon his death, the Museum collection has 1,372 plates and sketches of birds and mammals. [10]
These are only a few of the incredible artists and scientists in the American Museum of Natural History’s collection. Many more can be found throughout our exhibition halls or by browsing our digital Museum Archives. Art can also be found in the newly reopened Northwest Coast Hall, featuring contemporary Indigenous works in our collection by artists K.C. Hall (Haiłzaqv), Yolonda Skelton (Gitxsan), Shy Watters (Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw), Crystal Kaakeeyaa Worl and Rico Lanaat’ Worl (Tlingit/Athabascan), Louie Gong (Nooksack), and Jaalen Edenshaw (Haida) in the Generation to Generation exhibition and works on loan in the temporary Grounded by Our Roots exhibition by artists Hawilkwalał Rebecca Baker-Grenier (Kwakiuł, Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw, Skwxwú7mesh), Alison Bremner Naxhshagheit (Tlingit), SGidGang.Xaal Shoshannah Greene (Haida), Nash’mene’ta’naht Atheana Picha (Kwantlen First Nation), and Eliot White-Hill Kwulasultun (Snuneymuxw First Nation). Another recent highlight is the temporary exhibit Extinct and Endangered: Insects in Peril, in the Akeley Gallery and East Galleria, featuring the macrophotography of Levon Biss and consisting of composite images of specimens in our collection.
[1] Hentz, Nicholas Marcellus | NCpedia. (n.d.). Ncpedia.org. Retrieved January 23, 2024, from https://ncpedia.org/biography/hentz-nicholas-marcellus
[2] Cooke, J. (1996). A pioneering spider man. Natural History, 105 (7), 74.
[3] Quesada-Khoury, K. (n.d.). Toshio Asaeda. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved January 23, 2024, from https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/library/untold-stories/toshio-asaeda
[4] Sweimler, J. (2022, July 31). Toshio Asaeda, the Versatile Artist | The Future of Truth. University of Connecticut. https://futureoftruth.uconn.edu/seeing-truth/instigator-objects/toshio-asaeda-the-versatile-artist/
[5] Miner, R. W. (1916). Ignaz Matausch. Journal of the New York Entomological Society, 24 (2), 155–157. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25003711
[6] Cassone, S. (2016, November 10). Akeley-Eastman-Pomeroy African Hall Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1926). American Museum of Natural History. https://data.library.amnh.org/archives-authorities/id/amnhc_2000219
[7] Cohen, M. (2014). Underwater Optics as Symbolic Form. French Politics, Culture & Society, 32(3), 1–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24517639
[8] Shor, E. (2010). Zarh H. Pritchard, A Biography. http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/hist/Shor-Pritchard.pdf
[9] Madsen, A. K. (2023). Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Trailblazing Chicago Sculptor. https://www.artic.edu/articles/1029/bessie-potter-vonnoh-trailblazing-chicago-sculptor
[10] Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smith, Charles Hamilton. (2023, May 22). In Wikisource . Retrieved 18:09, January 23, 2024, from https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Smith,_Charles_Hamilton&oldid=13231735
The American Museum of Natural History Accessions Archive Digitization Project continues to uncover fascinating narratives within our storied collection. We appreciate the support of the IMLS and the Shelby White & Leon Levy Archive Initiative to better serve our collection, staff, and museum visitors.
This is the sixth post in a series about the Registrar’s Accessions Archive Digitization Project. This entry was written by Project Digital Archivist Marisa Kurtz.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS Grant #MA-249747-OMS-21.