- ""My crocodile statue"? I thought it belonged to the museum."
- ―Indiana Jones[src]
The New York Museum of History was a museum located in New York City. It collected and displayed rare artifacts from around the world. Items were displayed in the open, with an elaborate alarm system in place that would sound if items were removed from their stands.
Adventures at the New York Museum of History[]
In the late spring or early summer of 1931, two hooded thieves entered the museum one night. After passing by several artifacts, they found a figurine of a crocodile and stole it. The alarm was set off, and the thieves eluded the museum security guards. After using the statue to knock out one of the guards, one of the pair was reprimanded by his partner. Chief of Security Ballantine Gruber came out of his office, and encountered the thieves. When one tried to club him with the statue, he shouted "Not with the statue!", and was knocked out with another object instead, and tied up.
The next day, Marcus Brody, who was associated with the museum, realized that the investigation of the crocodile's theft was more than Gruber could handle, and took Gruber to meet with Indiana Jones at Marshall College.
Later, Indiana Jones deduced that the theft of the Wohat crocodile was a copycat crime plotted by Gruber for profit during a wave of thefts of other Wohat figurines.
Artifacts owned by the New York Museum of History[]
- Necklace
- Ewer
- Wohat Statue of a Crocodile (stolen)
- Large stone bird
Employees of the New York Museum of History[]
- Ballantine Gruber
- Security guards
Behind the scenes[]
It is unclear whether the New York Museum of History is meant to be the New York branch of the National Museum, or a stand-in for the real-world American Museum of Natural History or its own museum that also had close ties to Marcus Brody.