A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

Chicago's largest cemetery is full of beautiful Victorian monuments and more than a few ghost stories.

A hollow cement depiction of time's inexorable effect on the human body.

An enormous park-like oasis, full of famous Chicagoans’ graves.

A century-old hotspot for jazz, frequented by everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Al Capone.

A lush green oasis in the middle of Chicago.

A pedestrian island in the middle of world-famous Times Square emits a strange (and purposeful) humming noise.

This taxidermy scene brings the struggle for survival in the Indian jungle to a quiet corner of a Manhattan museum.

An eerie diorama that captures the majestic nature of a few prehistoric-looking beasts.

One of the most dazzling dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History is also one of the oldest.

This poignant display is now a memorial to these regionally extinct species.

This morbid scene depicts the Darwinian drama of death on the African savannah.

This impressive scene portrays the elusive forest giraffe of Central Africa.

Creating this diorama spurred naturalist Carl Akeley to begin advocating to protect the apes.

This magnificent herd of stampeding elephants has been frozen in time for over a century.

Here be dragons.

Even for Egyptian royalty, the afterlife was bring-your-own-beef.

Once thought to be the fabled Holy Grail, it is now known to be an oil lamp.

This installation turns abstract economics into a stark, public spectacle.

Outstanding taxidermy dioramas showcase the grandeur of the continent's wildlife with spooky realism.

The home of the first American-born saint is one of the only curved buildings in New York.

This hidden oasis features a stunning view of the Hudson River and the Palisades from a castle-like museum.

This memorial honors thousands of enslaved Africans and their descendants who died in colonial New York.

The last remnants of what was once one of the world's grandest hotels can now be found in a Manhattan subway station.