Telling Species Stories:

Visualizing Futures for North American Habitat Dioramas

In the last century, thousands of visitors have observed the habitat dioramas within the American Museum of Natural History with intrigue and awe. These illuminated spectacles were so lifelike, depicting actual places in space and time — telling their stories — that viewers were able to experience not only the habitats, but also animal behavior. Their vivid stories influenced public opinion about the value of these places and their need for conservation. To this day, what many viewers do not realize is that the magic of the habitat dioramas, their powerful impact, is enabled through the capacity to visualize them — through the careful construction of spatial illusion produced by a curved background painting, with elements collected from specific sites, and taxidermied specimens from biomes around the world.

More recently, habitat dioramas have been the subject of critiques that challenge the diorama’s staged visions and the separation, behind panes of glass, of ourselves from nature. Moreover, the species and habitats depicted are out of sync with the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. However, these remarkable dioramas have enduring qualities that can further serve to educate and empower the public to (re)consider our changing place in nature and our relationship with other species.

All we need are new stories, and the capacity to visualize them.

This workshop focused on collaborative and co-creative exercises to develop these science-supported “stories”— scenarios based on current conservation science and speculation — for four selected habitat dioramas. With these future “scenarios” one could imagine changes to these diorama habitats, for example, considering their environmental stressors, along with adaptations under climate change and biodiversity loss, and importantly, could speculate on their futures through new concepts, for example, design interventions and conservation efforts, some of which are being initiated and realized today. In this way, the workshop goal was to contemplate new stories which might shape public discourse, and inspire visitors as they leave the museum with more than empathy, but also agency and renewed empowerment to engage with new natures, through changing stories of our time. 

‘Telling Species Stories’ took place on the first day of the 2024 Student Conference on Conservation Science (October 9), at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City.