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“Octavia E. Butler at Joshua Tree National Park, California in 1984. Photo by Harald Sund. She researched deserts as settings for some of her novels.”

Mythical creatures. Duden italiano. 1939

1. dragon · 2. unicorn · 3. griffin · 4. chimera · 5. minotaur · 6. centaur · 7. harpy · 8. siren · 9. Pegasus · 10. sphinx · 11. giant · 12. Cerberus · 13. Triton · 14. sea horse · 15. sea bull

As snow falls on New York City, we’re looking back to 1946, when artist Belmore Browne put the finishing touches on the background painting of the Museum’s snowswept Mountain Goat Diorama. 

Did you know that each of the Museum’s dioramas depicts a real location at a particular time of day? The views are painstakingly recreated from paintings, photographs, data, and specimens collected in the field. This diorama shows a herd of mountain goats in Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Standing where these goats are, you would hear more than see this glacier moving—a creaking as the ice strains down the valleys, and a booming crack when the leading edge breaks off into the fjord. 

Today, Alaska’s glaciers are noisier than ever, disintegrating faster than they were when this background was painted in 1946. Climate change is causing severe melting at Alaska’s steep southern coast and other icy landscapes worldwide. If this scene were painted today, the glacier’s edge would be much more distant.

Georgia O’Keeffe Above Clouds III/Above the Clouds III, 1963 Oil on canvas, 48 x 84 in. (121.9 x 213.4 cm)