Pictures show how New York's iconic Museum of Natural History has been transformed into a COVID-19 vaccine site

New Yorkers can get their COVID-19 vaccine on the bottom floor of the museum's Hall of Ocean Life.Joey Hadden/Insider

• The American Museum of Natural History in New York became a COVID-19 vaccination site on April 23.
• New York City residents can marvel at ocean life exhibits while they get vaccinated.
• People receive their shots under the enormous, suspended, big blue whale model.

Inside the American Museum of Natural History, New Yorkers can marvel at ocean life while they get their COVID-19 vaccine.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

The museum's Hall of Ocean Life, where the iconic big blue whale hangs, has been transformed into a walk-in vaccine site for New York City residents.

The museum's Hall of Ocean Life transformed.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

To find the vaccine site, New Yorkers can enter the museum via the subway entrance on Central Park West and 79th Street, where staff directs people to the Hall of Ocean Life on the first floor.

Outside the museum, signs direct people to the vaccine site.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: American Museum of Natural History

The site opened on April 23 to all New Yorkers, and vaccinations come with a general admission museum voucher for up to four people.

New Yorkers wait for vaccinations at the museum.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

Because it's a vaccination site, the lower level of the Hall of Ocean Life is closed to museum guests.

The bottom floor of the Hall of Ocean Life.      Joey Hadden/Insider

If you look closely at the 94-foot whale suspended high up in the center of the hall, you'll see a 6-foot long bandaid indicating that she has been vaccinated as well.

The big blue whale's bandaid is 6 feet long and 2 feet wide.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

Built in the 1960s, the big blue whale is a replica of the largest animal known to humans. The model itself is 21,000 pounds of foam and fiberglass.

The whale obstructs a view of the vaccination site.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: American Museum of Natural History, Insider

The site seemed to operate like many others, with tiny makeshift rooms for getting the shot and arrows directing guests.

A close-up of the site.      Joey Hadden/Insider

But the views are like no other. As New Yorkers wind around the vaccine site ...

The vaccine site takes up the whole bottom floor.      Joey Hadden/Insider

... they can also observe and admire the hall's many massive exhibits of ocean life, from a dolphin and tuna diorama ...

People walk by and wait next to the dolphin and tuna diorama.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: American Museum of Natural History

... to a diorama of walruses.

People sit in front of the walrus diorama.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: American Museum of Natural History

People sitting in rows of socially distanced seats could take in the museum's Bahamian coral reef diorama.

A close-up of the site.      Joey Hadden/Insider

And after getting their shots, New Yorkers can take their photo with a masked dinosaur skull.

People take photos after getting shots.      Joey Hadden/Insider

The museum is one of several iconic landmarks to become a vaccine site.

The big blue whale vaccine site in New York City.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Source: Insider

Mayor Bill DeBlasio said that the vaccination site was an example of how NYC found "a way to fight back that's smart and creative and exciting and vibrant. That's what we do in this city," he said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio next to Ellen Futter at the April 23 press conference.      Joey Hadden/Insider

Director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium Neil deGrasse Tyson said the site is also an example of how humans should "band together" through extreme times.

Neil deGrasse Tyson at the April 23 press conference.      Joey Hadden/Insider

He called the group effort of New Yorkers, medical workers, and museum staff "an example of what the nation and world should have been doing from the very beginning."

A close-up of the site.      Joey Hadden/Insider