Tentacles in the Brooklyn Museum, 1931. Found while flipping through Science and Invention magazine for March 1931, newly on Archive.org. An initial search suggested there was also a giant squid, as the modern book Brooklyn Museum of Art: Building for the Future talks of their having once been natural history galleries and a specific section for… “Invertebrates housing not only display cases of specimens but also large models of a squid and an octopus suspended overhead”.

The first hall, moved wholesale to another hall and re-opened by 1928. This is as Lovecraft would have known it until c. 1927.

The first question was, did H.P. Lovecraft know the Museum from 1922 onward? Yes, of course he did. He saw it as a tourist first, and then ‘did it’ systematically and thoroughly later in 1922. Its galleries and the adjacent Japanese Gardens became a regular haunt when he was in New York. Another question was, was it always the “Brooklyn Museum” or did it have another or formal name? Indeed it did, being also known as the Brooklyn Institute. Pictures? Yes, here is a rare eye-level card showing it about a decade earlier. Most of the other cards are later, gaudily coloured and vigorously airbrushed.

Were there other attractions there? Well, a big attraction was the cost. Entry was free on most days, and the place was also open in the evening on Thursdays. By circa 1930 he probably knew the place well, but he was also well aware of the new items being accessioned. He did the Museum solo in May 1930, seeing the new ‘Colonial furniture and interiors’ wing which newly offered complete rooms arranged for Lovecraft’s lingering delight. In 1933 he “…did the Brooklyn Museum with Sonny” — Lovecraft letter to Morton, 12th January 1933, when they focussed on the “Dutch” section. I would suspect that this may also have been new.

But what of the tentacles, and the “Cthulhu” period? Regrettably there appears to be a lack of vintage postcards from the Museum, showing the interior, still less the Invertebrates section. Still there is one negative of a record-picture of the Hall of Invertebrates in 1928. Below I have newly enlarged and colorised it. The picture makes the room appear smaller than it was. The cabinets are man-high, not at child-level as they might be today.

1928, after removal from the second floor, east wing, to the first floor, west wing.

The hanging giant octopus was there before “Call of Cthulhu” was written, as confirmed by the book Guide to the Nature Treasures of New York City (1917). Also the giant squid…

Models of the octopus and squid occupy the last wall case at this end of the hall and should be compared with the giant octopus and squid suspended from the center ceiling and the marine painting above.

Thus it would be plausible to suggest that this (and the squid) could have played into Lovecraft’s conception of Cthulhu… “The cephalopod head was bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the backs…”.

1920 saw the addition of a ‘Pacific case’, a fine diorama with glass models. Possibly these were in the closed wooden cases seen at the back of the 1928 photo above. As such the picture below exemplifies the sort of detailed and accurate ‘undersea’ scene available in this Hall.

Here is the full description of what Lovecraft would have seen there circa 1922. This also notes the microscope views and many glass re-creations…

“… invertebrates and plants in the eastern galleries [on the “second floor” until 1927, the on the “first floor, west wing” after that]… the Hall of Invertebrates of the Brooklyn Museum (Room 7 on plan) is next entered, where the sponges and corals, worms, mollusks, crustaceans and other types of animals lacking a backbone (invertebrates) are exhibited.

Among this invertebrates are the sponges and corals, from all parts of the world, are systematically arranged in wall cases on the west, north and south sides of the hall, and in various floor cases special groupings have been made of sponges and corals of particular beauty or interest or of unusual size.

Other invertebrates are specimens of the Protozoa, or one-celled animals, the simplest forms of animal life, are shown in the first floor case on the left (north) side of the hall, by the aid of micro-scopes, and also by enlarged glass models. The sponges are the simplest forms of animals whose bodies consist of more than one cell, for the cells, although arranged in two layers, act each independently. Varieties of lime sponges, glass or silicious sponges and horny sponges are shown, as well as fresh-water, deep-sea and boring sponges, and sponge spicules under the microscope.

Models of coral, showing the anatomy of the polyps and their relation to one another, are seen in the second floor case on the left, which contains also models of the freshwater polyp hydra and other related forms. In the adjacent wall cases, specimens of mushroom, staghorn and brain coral and other forms are shown. A very large specimen of brain coral from the Bahamas and a specimen of staghorn coral, one of the largest pieces of branching coral ever collected, are exhibited in floor cases in the center of the hall.

Among the mural paintings in this hall of the Brooklyn Museum, representing some of the more striking invertebrates as they appear in life, is one depicting a coral reef in a tropical sea, and on the south wall in the center of the hall a large window group shows a coral reef close at hand and the animals that frequent it. Other mural paintings show an octopus at home, the formation of a mangrove swamp and other typical shore scenes of the Atlantic coast. Proceeding down the left side of the hall, the starfish and sea urchin families occupy the next case, and the development and anatomy of starfishes and sea urchins are illustrated by drawings, dissections, models and specimens of various ages. Abnormal specimens and specimens showing regeneration of rays in a starfish also are shown. The various types of sea urchins occupy the eastern side of the case. The worms in the next cases include the serpulid worm of the sea, the horsehair worm and a model enlarged and dissected; the branchiopods, related to both worms and mollusks, are shown here.

Crustaceans, in the next case of invertebrates, are represented by some one hundred species, including the crayfish with an enlarged model of dissection to show the anatomy, and a section of mud from a river bank showing a crayfish group at home, together with crabs, lobsters, shrimps, barnacles, horseshoe crabs and others. In the wall case at this point, the giant spider crab and the locust lobster of Japan, the largest species of living crustaceans, are shown.

The systematic series of shells, which includes characteristic examples of the principal divisions of mollusks and gives a general impression and synopsis of this group of animals at the Brooklyn Museum, is arranged in two floor cases on the right (southern) side of the hall at this (western) end. The largest specimens are in the upper part of the case, and the extensive study collections are arranged systematically in drawers below. Fine specimens of the nautilus and argonaut, representing the higher mollusks, may be seen, also the paper nautilus of Japan; a particularly interesting specimen is the naked mollusk from Naples, which appears to have no shell because the shell is internal.

An exhibit of land snails and of shells from Lake Tanganyika occupies a position in the systematic series of shells and shows specimens of the eggs of marine mollusks. The ship-boring bivalve teredo and its work in destroying ship bottoms are exhibited in the case next on the east; sections of wood show the damage done and method of work, and photographs show the anatomy of the animal. Other boring mollusks are exhibited here also, and in the upper part of the case are habitat groups of the edible snails of southern Europe. An exhibit of pearl shells from the pearl fisheries …

The marine animals of the coast of Long Island and New England, from high tide to a depth of 7,200 feet, form an interesting exhibit in the last floor case on this side. Among the specimens may be mentioned the oyster drill, showing the drilled shells, egg cocoons and stages of growth of the animal, and mounted specimens of the pipefish, sand flea and other shore creatures. Models of the octopus and squid occupy the last wall case at this end of the hall and should be compared with the giant octopus and squid suspended from the center ceiling and the marine painting above.

Passing into the Insect Hall (Room 8 on plan) …”

Ah, the Insect Hall. What monstrous wonders might he have seen through microscopes in there…?