What They’re Wearing at the American Museum of Natural History

On any given day at the American Museum of Natural History, employees might be meeting with dignitaries, interacting with children or traveling to far-flung destinations like Antarctica or Mongolia on scientific expeditions. The office style of the nonprofit, which employs 1,179 full-time people, reflects that diversity.

“What I wear is dependent on whether I’m doing museum work or whether I’m going to be in the middle of the Gobi Desert excavating dinosaurs for a couple of months,” said Mark Norell, chairman and curator of paleontology.

Brad Harris, senior director of visitor services, said he wears jeans to “One Step Beyond,” the museum’s DJ series. “Our target demographic is 25- to 35-year-olds,” he said. “You don’t want to look like a narc.”

The Indiana Jones Mystique: For some scientists, the job invites the inevitable stereotypes, particularly involving a certain fictional archaeologist. “It kind of comes with the territory,” said Mr. Norell. “Between Indiana Jones or Ross from ‘Friends,’ everybody has their idea of what a paleontologist looks like.”

“When I show up to things, everybody expects me to come in wearing a safari belt and a pith helmet,” he added. “That’s not really me.”

“It’s very cute and so forth, and it’s given the profession quite a good image,” said Ross MacPhee, curator of mammalogy, “but most of us are not Harrison Ford.”

The Dress Code: Some departments, like security, require uniforms, while others have general dress standards. “My department is always meeting with external clients, so we always dress professionally,” said Youn-Jung Lee, senior director of event and conference services. “But if you’re in the sciences, and you’re in a lab, you can dress in jeans and it would be perfectly appropriate.”

For Justy Alicea, who prepares dinosaur and mammal fossils in a laboratory, getting dressed up for work isn’t practical. “All of us come in with the knowledge that we may get our clothes dirty, so we keep that in mind. And some of us have a change of clothes around in case we need it.”

Many of the museum’s scientists say they take the comfort route. Curator of fishesMelanie Stiassny, who says she usually opts for casual trousers, comfortable shoes and a nice shirt, said, “The reality of it is that most scientists here are A) not fashion plates and B) basically slobs.”