Artist Belmore Browne painting the background for the Alaska brown bear diorama.

The Alaska Brown Bear diorama's background painting by Belmore Browne suggests a mystical vision of nature in which the animal seems exalted in its majestic surroundings. The snow-covered volcanic mountains, known as the Aghileen Pinnacles, seem mythical and surreal, like a glorious apparition of Valhalla behind the bears. Browne was a champion for the preservation of wild Alaska during the early twentieth century. His passion for this wilderness state and its disappearing wilder finds expression in this radiant background.