20 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PHILADELPHIA MEETING 



after returning from his "trip through China and northern Siberia." 

 He asked himself : "Could a great city like New York afford to be with- 

 out a museum of natural history?" With his ripe experience of travel, 

 his wide knowledge of natural history, and his love of it, fostered by that 

 pioneer naturalist, Louis Agassiz, his dream became a reality, and the 

 Museum is today greater than any of us had dared to hope. People have 

 often spoken of the thirteen buildings that Avould form the group com- 

 prising the Museum of Natural Histor}\ They thought of it as a curious 

 architectural plan for a gridiron building, but never realized that it would 

 become a fact. Today we have no less than six buildings. 



All who knew liim will agree with the statement that while no one Jias 

 better succeeded in such effort than did the late Professor Bickmore in 

 obtaining gifts and favors for his cherished institution, he was never 

 uncomfortably insistent in his requests, l^ut almost invariably found it 

 possible to persuade the prospective donor that no better place could be 

 found for his specimens than the great museum, where not only the 

 former owner himself could see them under the very best conditions, but 

 they would afford pleasure and instruction to thousands of visitors. 



I never knew Professor Bickmore to be in anything but a liappy mood. 

 He was frank, fearless, generous, kind, energetic. His whole ambition 

 was embodied in the success of the American Museum of Natural History. 

 Those were the days when the IMuseum had very little or no money, al- 

 though it was sustained by loyal and ambitious friends. 



Of all those associated with the institution and its inception, only three 

 are now living: Hon. Joseph H. Choate, who has been a trustee through- 

 out the entire period of its existence, and the renowned naturalist. Dr. 

 Daniel Giraud Elliott, who, with the late Doctor Holder, the latter's son, 

 now Dr. Charles Frederick Holder, and Mr. Bargen, an accountant and 

 bookkeeper, formed the entire staff of the Museum when the doors of the 

 Arsenal were opened to admit the public to view the relatively small but 

 interesting and well chosen collection of that early day in the institution's 

 history. 



A memorial meeting for Professor Bickmore was held January 29, 

 1912, at the American Museum of Natural History, short addresses being 

 made, among others, by Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of the 

 Museum; Cleveland II. Dodge, Joseph H. Choate, Dr. John M. Clarke, 

 and L. P. Gratacap, a curator of the Museum. No one was better quali- 

 fied to speak of the great work accomplished by Professor Bickmore in 

 connection with the founding and building of the Museum than Mr. 

 Choate, who drafted the charter and by-laws of the new institution and 

 who was one of the few survivors of those who actively supported the 



