Long ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, the world was a hotter, steamier place. In the near future, however, visitors who come to the Peabody Museum of Natural History to view the fossil remains of those long-extinct creatures can do so in air-conditioned comfort.
At a hearing of Governor John Rowland's Bond Commission on May 29 in Hartford, the Peabody Museum was awarded a $250,000 grant for installation of an environmental cooling system for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, one of Connecticut's most popular tourist attractions. The grant, which will be matched by Yale, came from the Urban Revitalization and Investment Division of the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development.
The new environmental cooling system will provide a comfortable environment in the museum's Great Hall for its 100,000 visitors and for the 34,000 schoolchildren who pass through the facility annually. Climate control of the Great Hall will enable the museum to host summer programs, particularly those benefiting special needs visitors, such as young children from day care centers and the elderly who are adversely affected by hot weather.
The new system augments museum conservation efforts by providing
humidity control necessary to protect the famous 110-foot-long dinosaur
fresco depicting The Great Age of Reptiles. Painted by Rudolph F.
Zallinger between 1943 and 1947, the mural won the Pulitzer Prize for
Painting in 1949. The monumental mural, which overlooks the dinosaur
fossils in the Great Hall, depicts 300 million years of evolution,
encompassing the reign of the Apatosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex.
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