9. The four explorers on the American Museum of Natural History, 79th and Central Park West
Granite likenesses of explorers Daniel Boone, John James Audubon, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark stand above the columns of the American Museum of Natural History’s main entrance. American sculptor James Earle Fraser constructed each of the 13-foot statues as part of a façade addition built in the 1930s to honor Theodore Roosevelt.
Besides the four naturalists, Fraser also made the entrance statue of Teddy Roosevelt on horseback flanked by an African person and a Native American walking alongside. The de Blasio administration removed the statue in January 2022 for its suggestion of racial inferiority. Fraser also designed the Buffalo Nickel, a nickel produced by the United States Mint from 1913 to 1938.