34b. The T. rex skull, 1912
In 1907, Barnum Brown led another American Museum Expedition back to Hell Creek, Montana, where the first Tyrannosaurus skeleton had been discovered in 1902. The Expedition was successful in discovering a second T. rex skeleton. And whereas the first specimen had only an imperfect skull, this second one was found with a nearly complete skull. The skull was first published here in 1912 and included a dramatic photograph by Abram E. Anderson.
Interestingly, Anderson took a photograph of the right side of the skull as well, but Osborn did not publish it. That had to wait for W. D. Matthew’s little pamphlet of 1915, where it appeared as the frontispiece.
Sources
Osborn, Henry Fairfield. "Crania of Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus," in: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, new series, vol. 1 (1912), pp. 1-30. This work is part of our History of Science Collection, but it was NOT included in the original exhibition.
Matthew, W. D. Dinosaurs, With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1915. This work is part of our History of Science Collection, but it was NOT included in the original exhibition.