dinosaur halls in the museums

[dyno77]

I dont live in the states,but in europe iv been to pretty much all the major museums many times, theres no doubt they are fine and all,but there some of them dont update often enough leading me not to bother visiting them again...
Now i get that the fossils halls or dinosaur galleries are the least funded because iv read about this many times..but the fact they close of most of the storage rooms to only a select few is something that just gets to me a bit..
Take for example the nhm in berlin or even the dinosaur hall in london nhm...they are all fine and well but they haven't been updated in years,nothing major has been added permanently...sure every few years there is a exhibit on some prehistoric topic ,but this adds nothing in the long run..because most of the time its made for kids or for everyone..
I will say i have seen some great exhibits ,mostly the spinosaurus and a rare t rex specimen along with the worlds largest dinosaurs...this in particular being the the best selection of dinosaurs iv ever seen ....
Iv also been around some 10 min walkthrough exhibits which were pointless in my view....
At least in europe to many of the museums are static to say the least,adding 1 skeleton just doesn't cut it for me..id prefer some of the storage room fossils on display...and public access to storage rooms in the museums in the euopean museums is next to impossible unless you are a leading expert...
As a reader of history of fossils in museums its clear most of them are in storage and in europe they are pretty much not accessible to the public...This in my view is just not cutting it ,i know in the new york,smithsonian,ect they can go visit the storage rooms on regular basis....
Having the funding to other areas tells me either dinosaurs arent as popular as you imagine,or there is something else going on...
I know this isn't the same everywhere,but the nhm in london which is promoted as 1 of the best in the world,hasn't changed its dinosaur hall in over 30yrs...not only that but it has in it storage rooms some of the first dinosaurs ever discovered but doesn't make a big enough deal out of them..and this is a another thing that gets to me as a longtime dinosaur fan...it has the first  t rex ,dynamosaurus in its collection but rarely mentions it,sure there was a report a few years back of its jaw being on display...The main dinosaur hall is a mess...and im not the only 1 to note this as iv read many reports and reviews on it and how its the exact same layout as it was 30yrs ago because the head curator isnt interested enough to change it ....The triceratops in this museum is 1 of the last displayed in a retro pose with its back humped ,it hasn't changed in 100yrs....and the photos to show this are in their official book..

[leidy]

NHM in London is a mess.  Thought it was bad in the 90s, and it has aged horribly.  I would much rather see some of the exhibits as they had been displayed previously.  Would far rather see a good display with more of their unique British dinosaurs, like Cetiosauriscus, Hylaeosaurus, Scelidosaurus, Proceratosaurus etc.  And they never should've dismantled their 1970s Dynamosaurus half-mount, which was the first time a T.rex skeleton had been assembled in the now accepted horizontal posture.

US museums have had some serious amounts of money poured into them.  So much of it is corporate sponsorship and philanthropic donation, quite likely tax-deductions aggrandizing those involved with plaques thanking them.  Europe doesn't have quite that same corporate culture, so in a lot of cases, if they can't justify spending public taxpayer money on it, it doesn't happen.  I know from some contacts that such funding is often the first thing to get cut when there's a downturn in the economy, or a change of government.  Some museums have had revamps on the drawing boards for decades.

I visited many of them in the 90s and early 2000s.  90s revamps of dino exhibits were pretty bad, but when they redid the AMNH, a new standard was set.  Was also hugely impressed with Carnegie.

Among European museums the best I have seen were the German ones.  The Humboldt was impressive in the 1990s, but is absolutely spectacular now.  It's world class and must-see.     

[HD-man]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't this thread be under "Museums, theme parks, and other places"?: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?board=28.0

[DinoToyForum]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't this thread be under "Museums, theme parks, and other places"?: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?board=28.0

Topic moved

On the topic at hand, I'm a curator at a natural history museum, so I have some insight. One thing I can tell you with confidence: "the head curator isn't interested enough to change it" is definitely not the reason displays are updated infrequently – curators don't make those kind of decisions. I wish we did!