The Hall of Mexico and Central America presents an anthropologically oriented overview of pre-Hispanic culture. The Virtual Hall complements the existing hall by providing visitors and researchers with digital images and detailed information on artifacts displayed in the hall and by presenting new information about pre-Hispanic culture gleaned from research taking place since the hall's inauguration in 1970.

Textiles tell a great deal about the history, daily life, aesthetics, environment, and technology of people all over the world. Used to make clothing, accessories, and domestic goods, textiles vary in complexity from plain and utilitarian, to decorative and ceremonial. Since the Museum's founding in 1869, the Anthropology Division's ethnographic collection has grown to include over 11,000 textiles from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.

The set of over 1000 objects is a compilation of images related to the Buddha and Buddhist practice collected from the AMNH Asian Ethnographic Collections. The project was funded by the Anthropology Division with the support of the Jane Belo Tanenbaum Fund and the Whitney Tibetan Fund.

This rare, complete set of 79 Tibetan medical tangkas was painted by the Nepalese tangka artist Romio Shrestha and his Tibetan, Nepalese, and Bhutanese students in Kathmandu during seven years in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The paintings were donated to this Museum by Emily Fisher, a Museum Trustee. The medical tangkas form a unique document in the history of medicine.