The Academy of Natural Sciences and Dioramas

                Critics at the turn of the twentieth century felt museums were places that enshrined death, comparing them to cemeteries.  As a response to the collections of the Victorian museums, the diorama was first initiated as a new mode of museum display to enliven and stimulate a collection, give the objects relevance to present times, and actively engage the viewer.  At the time of their conception, the diorama would have fulfilled its purpose of bringing life into the "dead" museum, maybe not so much by the use of taxidermied animals, but by creating a scene or window into a particular place and moment in time.  Their narrative and illusions also would have enhanced the attention and excitement of the visitors, which would have been expanding to include a wider range of the public.  The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia still uses the diorama in its earliest form as a means of display, yet I feel also provides viewers with a good example throughout the rest of the museum of how contemporary practices are adapting these earlier modes to the present.

                The first floor of the museum, the Dinosaur Hall, presents a problem to the diorama display:  there cannot be any taxidermied dinosaurs included in exhibits since there are no living examples of dinosaurs left on earth.  To solve this issue, the museum used creativity and technology to improve the diorama.  An example on the first floor is a diorama of dinosaur skeletons positioned against a painted background of the same species, full skinned, in their natural environment.  The Academy also used technological advances to include the element of sound with the underwater creatures and a video diorama where the visitor can include him or herself in the scene.  Another issue in the 1800 and 1900s with advancements in science was the failure of dioramas to convey newfound knowledge, which was mostly occurring biologically; dioramas were only able to present a visual study of the surface of animals.  On the second floor in the academy, there was a model of stegosaurus cut in half to display its internal organs.  There were also various other exhibits and accompanying texts providing the audience with opportunity to learn.  This juxtaposition of old and new display techniques creates an overall more exciting experience for the museumgoer.

                One can appreciate the amount of effort that went into the construction of the dioramas in the museum:  the process of creating the life-like animal models, the thorough detail of the painted backdrops, the replication of the natural environments, and even the inclusion of small details—hoof prints in sand, birds resting on the backs of animals, and berries in the hand of the gorilla.  Maybe, that is the whole problem with dioramas, their blatant artificiality, but the museum is not trying to hide the fact that they are not real.  As Jesse Smith writes in his “Diorama-o-rama” article, museums today know that visitors realize their dioramas are fake and are throwing in the towel.  The Academy is respectable for not giving in but embracing this form of display.  In the Asian Hall they even included a video entitled “Are the Academy Dioramas Real?” and after a brief explanation of how they construct the animals for the scenes, answer this question by saying, “You decide.”  I am interpreting that statement to mean “Here is our collection, here is what we have to offer, take away whatever you want from this experience.”