1899 – William Holland Travels to NYC
On this day in dinosaurs, William Holland, Director of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Natural History was in New York City ahead of one of the biggest coups in paleontological history. Holland was meeting with his benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, about their difficulties in securing a giant dinosaur for the museum. They spent the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History with Jacob Wortman.
The objective of the visit was to gain insights into the American Museum’s Department of Vertebrate Paleontology. But Holland was both impressed and fascinated by the work of Wortman and collector William Reed.
Within several months of this visit to New York, Holland recruited Wortman, Reed, and Arthur Coggeshall–a skilled fossil preparator–to join him in Pittsburgh. This power shift gave Carnegie and the Carnegie Museum the talent and determination they needed to build their own vertebrate paleontology division. This dream team would be the foundation for an institution that would unearth some of the most dramatic and globally recognized dinosaurs in the world. And it all began with a little trip to the American Museum on this day in 1899.
1961 – Gorgo Released
Although Gorgo is more of a monster than a dinosaur, and not a true Gorgosaurus, we felt it necessary to celebrate the release of the classic film today.
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