The American Museum of Natural History

See Yellowstone National Park: Grizzlies, geysers, rivers, canyons and, of course, moose. The history of Yellowstone National Park is vividly portrayed in this memorable film, from the Tukudika Tribe, the earliest known inhabitants, to the early explorers including John Colter, a member of the Lewis & Clark party. Also portrayed are Wilson Hunt, who deemed the west unfit for habitation, Father Francis Kuppens, a Jesuit priest in pursuit of native souls, and the Washburn Expedition, instrumental in establishing Yellowstone as America’s first national park.

The Big Bang presentation takes viewers back to the birth of the universe, through its expansion and cooling, and from the emergence of simple gas clouds to galaxies with stars and planets. Finally, it raises the question of the nature of the so-called “dark energy,” a mysterious force counter to gravity that dominates the modern universe.

A humorous documentary about a historic hunt in 1929 through the African savannah and Indian jungle with lots of animal footage.

Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dark Universe brings audiences to the cutting edge of cosmic exploration to reveal the breakthroughs that have led astronomers to confront two great cosmic mysteries: dark matter and dark energy. In stunningly detailed scenes based on authentic scientific data—including a NASA probe’s breathtaking plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere and novel visualizations of unobservable dark matter—Dark Universe celebrates the pivotal discoveries that have led us to greater knowledge of the universe and to new frontiers for exploration.

Footage of Carl and Mary Akeley filmed during the AMNH Eastman-Pomeroy-Akeley East African Expedition, 1926. Short scenes from campsites and wildlife in Nairobi, Uganda, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania)

Jean Rouch filmed this loving and humorous portrait of anthropologist and filmmaker Margaret Mead in September 1977 while he was a guest of the first Margaret Mead Film Festival. As both a friend and colleague, Rouch reveals a glimpse of the legendary Mead in her later years.

American docudrama film which takes place in Kenya. It is a dramatized presentation of some of the social customs of the Bantu people, as represented through a young native hunter, Tandu. Narrated by Paul E. Prentiss, the film was a co-production of the American Museum of Natural History and Jarville Studios.

How can scientists study a faraway black hole that emits no light? By observing its quasar. As objects get pulled onto the accretion disk orbiting a supermassive black hole, friction creates a bright light known as a quasar. In this video, researchers use a “galaxy-sized lens” to analyze light from a distant quasar—revealing a supermassive black hole with a truly voracious appetite.

Astronomers have located more than 1,000 planets orbiting stars other than our own, and the latest observations are starting to reveal what these planets are like. The AMNH-led Project 1640 is at the forefront of this research. The project’s advanced telescope instrumentation can spot chemical fingerprints that will help characterize how exoplanets form, evolve, and differ from familiar planets closer to home.

The icy South Pole desert is a harsh and desolate landscape in which few life-forms can flourish. But the extreme cold and isolation are perfect for astronomical observations. Taking advantage of the severe conditions, scientists are using the new South Pole Telescope—the largest ever deployed in Antarctica—to observe the oldest light in the Universe, the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy—SOFIA—is the only airborne telescope in the world. Infrared imaging of stars and planets is difficult from ground-based observatories because water vapor in Earth's lower atmosphere blocks most infrared radiation. SOFIA operates from a modified Boeing 747, soaring above this vapor to capture infrared emissions from distant galaxies.

The Curiosity rover is seeking environments on Mars that could support life—or could have in the past. Earlier Mars missions found signs of water, but not organic carbon—life’s essential building block. Watch the Curiosity team prepare to hunt for carbon at Mount Sharp, which holds a geologic record hundreds of millions of years old.

The American Museum of Natural History funded this trip to New Mexico, documenting several Native American dances and practices.

This Devry educational short for the Museum of Natural History covers the honey bee, the field spider, and the trap door spider. Of course, it covers some of the basic knowledge that Pliny the Elder wrote about more than 2,000 years ago, and little more; there are only a few minutes of film here.