Paleozoic Museum
The Paleozoic Museum was a proposed museum of natural history in Manhattan near Central Park. Planning and initial construction for the museum proceeded in 1868–1870; English sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins planned and began creation of the dioramas, and the foundations for an eventual structure were laid at Central Park West and 63rd Street. The field of paleontology was in its infancy then, but interest was high for a museum displaying the latest findings. The museum never came to fruition after a combination of political resistance and a bizarre case of vandalism in 1871 that destroyed the dinosaur models that were prepared to be displayed in the museum.
The museum
After the
Extant drawings by Hawkins, along with other records, indicate that the Paleozoic Museum would have included life-sized restorations of the
Destruction
Unfortunately for Hawkins, the planned museum ran afoul of 19th century New York's politics. A new governing board of Central Park appointed in April 1870 still included Andrew Green, who had been supportive of the project, but reduced him to a mere member. The new board was led by
Various sources blamed Tweed for having sent the vandals, often linking it to ethnic bigotry—Tweed's Tammany Hall "machine" was the party of Irish immigrants, Hawkins was English, and Irish-English relations were famously tense in the era. Religious motives were another speculated factor—perhaps Tweed or the vandals were motivated by creationism. However, contemporary sources do not all agree it was Tweed; a 2023 paper reassessed the evidence, and considered it unlikely Tweed had ordered the vandalism. Rather, the paper suggests that Henry Hilton, an eccentric lawyer and a commissioner on the new Public Parks board that had been appointed in 1870, was a more likely culprit. Hilton was involved in supporting a rival project—the 1869 American Museum of Natural History—and further has a record of strange and destructive acts, including disputing with museum officials and ordering artifacts destroyed or painted over. Hilton had already ordered Hawkins to stop work earlier, and had a history of other "crazy actions"; the article wrote that Hilton was "not only bad, but also mad."[3] Additionally, while Hawkins had criticized Tweed, it was one minor instance buried on the fifth page of The New York Times; Tweed was a person constantly criticized by the media of the day, often far more prominently and on the front page. The article argues he could not possibly have taken revenge on every such petty slight.[4][3]
References
- ISBN 0-226-73104-9.
- ^ .
- ^ .
- ^ Blakemore, Erin (May 20, 2023). "New suspect emerges in long-ago vandalism of dinosaur sculptures". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2023.