James Earl Fraser depicts Theodore Roosevelt upon a grand horse, with a Native American standing beside him. Although this image depicts Roosevelt as sympathetic toward Native Americans due to the noble depiction of the man, it was actually the artist who was the sympathetic one. Fraser was exposed to frontier life and witnessed the mass movement of Native Americans from their land onto reservations.

This impressive museum was built in the Romanesque Revival style with pink granite, a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and marble floors.

The Rose Center for Earth and Space redefines the identity of this venerable cultural and academic institution for the 21st century while respecting the historic architecture of the designated landmark. Along with the Arthur Ross Terrace, the Weston Pavilion and the renovated Theodore Roosevelt Park, The Rose Center completes the Museum’s north side. The iconic sphere, housed within a glass cube, contains the state-of-the art Hayden Planetarium and “Big Bang” theater, whose program describes the origins of the universe. The building itself is designed as a learning tool, as a visible expression of the science it contains. Its extraordinary curtain wall, structural system and lighting, its use of materials and color, its open planning and single, striking volumetric expression all reveal to the visitor an iconic example of building technology and science that makes this new building a worthy complement to the existing museum and an effective expression of the institution’s scientific and educational mission.