The World Museum was a full-page illustrated feature in American Sunday newspapers, starting in 1937. Devised and drawn by Holling Clancy Holling, it was also known as The World Museum Dioramas.
Holling (1900–1973) graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1923, joined the taxidermy department of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and worked in anthropology under Dr. Ralph Linton. Holling created the book Paddle-to-the-Sea, which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1942.
He married Lucille Webster and accepted a position as art instructor on the first University World Cruise, sponsored by New York University. Holling dedicated much of his time and interest to creating The World Museum pages and books for children.
Dramatic dioramas
The reader was given instructions for cutting the pictures apart and assembling them into a diorama, often with a subject from nature, such as the Grand Canyon or Buffalo Hunt. A page on covered wagons carries the headline, "Covered wagons shown in an easy-to-build model: Scissors, paste and wrapping paper are all you need to make this Western set."