The Diarama's at the AMNH are the usual highlight for visitors and they are indeed beautiful and worthy of a visit but the Hall of the North West Coast Indians seems to be a gem most people miss out on. The hall is the oldest display in the museum and has hardly changed since its creation in 1900. The artefacts were collected by Franz Boas, often referred to as the Father of American Anthropology and features woven baskets, incredible ceremonial masks, every day implements for fishing and cooking and huge great carved totem poles. The lighting is terrible and the hall is said to be due some restoration which is perhaps why people use it as a corridor and don't stop to look. The hall is so quiet due to its neglect by visitors, and the smell so comforting and nostalgic that you can almost imagine Holden Caulfield passing through the great doors, as he did in the Catcher in the Rye.