Motorists crossing the Quinnipiac River Bridge may feel like they're traveling through time when they spy dinosaurs nearby, but in reality the paleontological visions will be part of a project to beautify the area by bringing the renowned "Age of Reptiles" mural at the Peabody Museum of Natural History to the New Haven Harbor landscape.
A "poster-sized" replica of the Pulitzer Prize-winning artwork by the late Rudolph Zallinger will be displayed on a Wyatt Energy, Inc. oil tank on the river's east shore beginning later this month. The replicated mural will measure 72 x 36 feet, compared to the original's 110 x 16 feet, and will wrap around the oil tank's girth approximately 60 feet above ground.
The outdoor mural will bear the legend "Yale Peabody Museum ... A New Haven Treasure," and is expected to be seen by the more than 200,000 commuters who travel on nearby Interstate 95 daily. The project is a partnership between the City of New Haven, the Peabody Museum and Wyatt Energy, Inc.
"I'm very excited about finding this way to bring Rudy Zallinger's masterpiece to a wider audience and hope that in the process we will be helping both to beautify New Haven and to create a more positive image of the city in the minds of its viewers," said Richard L. Burger, director of the Peabody Museum and professor of anthropology. "'The Age of Reptiles' mural at the Peabody Museum is one of New Haven's greatest treasures and is widely recognized as the most important natural history painting in the world."
Joshua Civin, a 1996 graduate of Yale College and alderman for New Haven's First Ward, said, "The beautification project will prominently feature one of our city's finest treasures and provide a wonderful enticement for tourists as well as long-time New Haveners."
The original "Age of Reptiles" mural is located in the Peabody's Great Hall of Dinosaurs. The work presents a panoramic overview of more than 300 million years of earth history, from the Devonian period, which began almost 400 million years ago, to the late Cretaceous period, which ended some 65 million years ago. It took Mr. Zallinger more than four and a half years to complete the mural, putting the final strokes on in 1947. Although scientific views of dinosaurs have changed since the work was completed, "The Age of Reptiles" is still considered one of the world's largest, most scientifically accurate natural history murals.
The technological challenges of bringing the fossil-inspired art to the side of a fossil-fuel tank were handled by the 3M Company. The new mural was reproduced on 3620 vinyl marking film from photographs of the original, and will be hung in wallpaper-like strips. In fact, the 3M team had to develop a special adhesive that allows the vinyl strips to cling to the relatively rough surface of the oil tank. Due to be completed by Saturday, Sept. 20, the mural is expected to remain on view for 8-10 years.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History, located at 170 Whitney Ave., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 3-15 and senior citizens over age 65, and free for members of the Yale community with a valid I.D. For information on events and parking, call the InfoTape at 432-5050.