4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



all those other societies. Get them to join their forces and unite to 

 form one society — call it the Academy of Science and Art of Pittsburgh, 

 if you please — and I will furnish accommodations for them when I 

 come to build the library in Pittsburgh. We can treat with one central 

 organization better than with half a dozen different societies. Some of 

 these societies are forming collections of books, historical objects, nat- 

 ural history specimens. These things ought to be kept in tire-proof 

 quarters. That is another point on which I am sound. I believe in 

 fire-proof construction. There are your butterflies, for instance. Such 

 collections should not be exposed to the risk of fire. "When I build the 

 library I will provide a good place in which to keep them.'' So the 

 plan was unfolded and its outlines sketched while the leaves rustled and 

 the birds sang overhead. 



Nine years took their flight, and at last the dream was transmuted 

 into stone and marble. The structure which the fancy had outlined 

 stood revealed in the beauty of architectural form and the still greater 

 beauty of definite purpose and usefulness. When on November 5, 1895, 

 the edifice was formally presented to the city of Pittsburgh by its donor 

 it was found to contain accommodations for a great central library, with 

 provision for the administration from this center of a number of 

 branch libraries, for the erection of which ample funds had been pro- 

 vided. Under the same roof was a music-hall, one of the most perfect 

 of its kind in the United States, an art gallery of noble proportions and, 

 forming the southern wing of the great building, the Museum, on the 

 first floor of which was provided a spacious lecture-hall adapted to the 

 uses of the learned societies, which, in pursuance of the suggestion of 

 the founder, had been merged into the Academy of Science and Art 

 of Pittsburgh. 



Prior to the opening of the building arrangements were made by" the 

 Academy of Science and Art to gather together a collection of objects 

 suitable for exhibition in a museum. The Curator of the Academy, 

 Dr. Gustave Guttenberg, labored strenuously to place the material in 

 proper order, and was aided by his associates, who freely gave their time 

 and generously contributed of their means to make the exhibition 

 Avorthy of the occasion. The result revealed, as all such attempts in 

 our great cities are certain to show, how large an accumulation of 

 really choice specimens exists in the hands of individuals who are 

 possessed of artistic and scientific tastes. Ethnological, mineralogical 

 and zoological collections of no small merit Avere rapidly brought to- 

 gether from the homes of scores of citizens, whose interest had been 

 awakened, and the collections in the possession of the Western Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania were laid under heavy contribution to fill up 

 any gaps, which required for the time being to be closed, in order to 

 replenish the cases and dress the lialls. 



