Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh has everything

I have to hand it to Andrew Carnegie, after he made all his money as a robber baron he turned his guilt into many philanthropic institutions. I have benefited directly because I got a college and the Carnegie Museums out of it.

We visited the museums this past Sunday since we were in Pittsburgh for my college reunion. The Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are part of one complex that also has the Carnegie Music Hall (which I got to perform in, back in the day). We pretty much did a whirlwind tour of the place. We tried to get to see the The Mysterious Bog People exhibit and some minerals and definitely wanted to see the art museum.

From a great Porky Pig cartoon from the 30's (Porky in Wackyland), Porky: "Are you really the last of the Dodos?" Dodo: "Yes I'm really the last of the dodos!" This dodo and many other stuffed birds, some lifelike, some not, were on the way to the Bog People.


There is a difference between a Mammoth (left) and a Mastodon (right), and these huge animals roamed North America thousands of years ago. The museum has both!














I just had to get a picture of this Camarasaurus Lentus taking a bite out of my head, for obvious reasons.







The Carnegie Museum of Art is known especially for its modern art collection and for Carnegie International which is a an exhibition that they run every few years to feature new contemporary art and artists. I really want a bureau in my house like this piece. The Scaife galleries are laid out so that a patron can move through the history of art from the early middle ages through to the modern. They also have art from different regions of the world as well. My two favorite things to see in the galleries are the large Monet painting and to tour the modern art installations.