In popular culture

• In J. D. Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye, the protagonist Holden Caulfield at one point finds himself heading towards the Museum, reflecting on past visits and remarking that what he likes is the permanence of the exhibits there.^[40]

• In many episodes of the Time Warp Trio on Discovery Kids, Joe, Sam, and Fred are in the Museum; in one episode they see it 90 years into the future.

• On early seasons of Friends, Ross Geller works at the Museum.

• The museum in the film Night at the Museum (2006) is based on a 1993 book that was set at the AMNH (The Night at the Museum). The interior scenes were shot at a sound stage in Vancouver, British Columbia, but exterior shots of the museum's façade were done at the actual AMNH. The museum in the film itself features a Hall of African Mammals, a Hall of Reptiles is mentioned, "Gems and Minerals" can be seen on a sign, there is a brief scene featuring the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life and the Blue Whale model, and it is dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt. AMNH officials have credited the movie with increasing the number of visitors during the holiday season in 2006 by almost 20%. According to Museum president Ellen Futter, there were 50,000 more visits over the previous year during the 2006 holiday season.^[41] Its 2009 sequel was partially set in this museum.

• The Museum appeared in the film "The Nanny Diaries".

• The Museum has appeared repeatedly in the fiction of dark fantasy author Caitlín R. Kiernan, including appearances in her fifth novel Daughter of Hounds, her work on the DC/Vertigo comic book The Dreaming (#47, "Trinket"), and many of her short stories, including "Valentia" and "Onion" (both collected in To Charles Fort, With Love, 2005).

• A scene in John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic is set before one of the dioramas.

• Several scenes in the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow were set in the Museum's halls.

• As the "New York Museum of Natural History", the Museum is a favorite setting in many Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novels, including Relic, Reliquary, The Cabinet of Curiosities, and The Book of the Dead. F.B.I. Special Agent Aloysius X. L. Pendergast plays a major role in all of these thrillers. Preston was actually manager of publications at the Museum before embarking upon his fiction writing career.

• The title of Noah Baumbach's 2005 film The Squid and the Whale refers to a diorama in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The diorama is shown at the end of the film.

• Other novels in which the AMNH is featured include Murder at the Museum of Natural History by Michael Jahn (1994), Funny Bananas: The Mystery in the Museum by Georgess McHargue (1975), The Bone Vault by Linda Fairstein (2003) and a brief scene in Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (1999).

• An ending for the film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story shows all four dinosaurs finally reaching the AMNH.

• Portions of the Sony PlayStation game Parasite Eve take place within the AMNH.

• The AMNH is featured in the film An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island. Fievel Mousekewitz and Tony Toponi go to the AMNH to meet Dr. Dithering to decipher a treasure map they have found in an abandoned subway.

• The AMNH appears as a Resistance-controlled building in the Sierra game Manhunter: New York.

• A scene from the biographic film Malcolm X was filmed in the hall with prehistoric elephants.

• The AMNH is featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV where it is known as the Liberty State Natural History Museum.

• In the fourth volume of Mirage's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Michelangelo acts as a tour guide for visiting aliens. His first assignment is the Saurian Regenta Seri and her Styracodon bodyguards who wish to see the Museum, specifically the dinosaur exhibit.

• The Museum was the setting for the 1970 novel The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest, but was not featured in the film adaptation One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, which was set in the Natural History Museum in London, England.

• In 2009, the Museum hosted the live finale of the second season of The Celebrity Apprentice.

• In a second season episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man titled "Destructive Testing", Spider-Man fights Kraven the Hunter in the Museum.

• An episode of Mad About You entitled Natural History is set in the museum.

Neighboring area

The museum is situated in a 17 acre park known as "Theodore Roosevelt Park". The park contains pleasant park benches, beautiful gardens and fields, and a dog run. This small park has made the area around the museum very desirable and some of the most expensive real estate in the Upper West Side (even more so after the completion of the renovation of the southern-facing museum facade) lies in this area. In 2007 it was not uncommon to see museum facing apartments sell for as much as $2000 per square foot. Additionally, the museum is surrounded by many gourmet restaurants that have outdoor cafes where patrons can sit outside and enjoy the view.

Images

Bengal Tiger at the American Museum of Natural History	Diorama in Akeley Hall of African Mammals	Diorama in Akeley Hall of African Mammals
Butterfly Conservatory	Display in Milstein Hall of Ocean Life	Tibet God Vajrapani statue