The Explorer's Club

And now for a little nincompoopery whiplash (meaning the post below is very serious and this post is very not serious)
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So tonight I went to a new members orientation of The Explorer's club.  One of those old "clubs" in New York.  This was one of the precursors to the National Geographic Society.  It is very cool.  I was accepted as a member late last year, and this was the new member orientation.
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I had a blast, and I thought I would share a couple of the pictures.  The Club itself is on the Upper East side in a 1910 Mansion redone as a club.
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So this is the "Trophy Room"  on the 5th floor .  The trophies are kind of politically incorrect now, but they were all from back in the old days.  The Lion skin on the map case was from a Lion Teddy Roosevelt shot in Africa.  The Emperor Penguin carcass was brought back by one of the first Antarctic Expeditions (one of Amundson's sleds is in the club).  That curved tusk from the ceiling above the Penguin? Wholly Mammoth Tusk.  Cool huh?

These "boring" paintings are on the stairway from floor 2 to 3.  Yes, they are simple and boring.  But they are the exact diorama backgrounds for the animals that are in the Natural History Museum.  How can you be sure, you ask?  Well, they were painted one the safaris when Teddy Roosevelt (and team) got the specimens for the dioramas.  ("Got the specimens", doesn't that sound better than "killed hte game".)