Since its founding in 1869, New York City's American Museum of Natural History has become one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural institutions, attracting four million visitors annually.<BR>In Windows on Nature, the first and definitive book on the museum's world-renowned habitat dioramas, author Stephen Christopher Quinn guides readers through the museum for a look at nature, science, and art that is sure to inspire readers young and old alike.<BR>This illustrated volume features detailed full-color photographs of more than forty dioramas, rare and never-before-seen historical images from the museum's archives, and informative, entertaining descriptions of each diorama and its creation. Quinn's behind-the-scenes tour of these three-dimensional marvels introduces us to an extraordinary group of explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists whose brilliance, passion, and eccentricities illuminate their creations. This unique showcase offers an exclusive look at the fascinating and sometimes mind-boggling techniques of diorama making, the development of dioramas as an art form and as a tool for wildlife conservation, and the museum's preeminent role in the history of art in the service of science.