1S88] MARYLAND ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 3 



Subscriptions to a building fund were solicited from many 

 prominent and wealthy citizens of Baltimore, who cordially 

 responded to the call, and these, added to contributions from 

 members of the Academy, raised the amount to about $3000. 

 This was sufficient to pay for the construction of a simple 

 building seventy feet in length by thirty feet in width, which 

 M'as deemed large enough for a first display of specimens. It 

 was hoped that additional money might be secnred thereafter 

 to enlarge this building, or to build another in accordance with 

 future needs. 



The building was begun in the autumn of 1874, and was 

 made ready for occupation by the opening of the new year, 1875. 

 On the evening of the 18th of January, 1875, it was formally 

 opened in the presence of about two hundred prominent and 

 interested citizens of Baltimore, who expressed much pleasure 

 at the prospect of having a permanent collection of carefully 

 classified specimens in geology and natural history, ready for 

 the free reference of all who desired to consult them. 



By means of a gallery placed around the entire wall, room 

 was made for numerous glazed cases, which accommodated 

 great groups of specimens in many branches of the animal 

 kingdom. On both sides of the hall, large cases with glazed 

 ends and doors held the collections of staffed beasts and birds, 

 of alcoholic or articulated reptiles and fish, while a case at the 

 one end held the corals and their allies, opposite to which were 

 placed the collection of Indian relics. At the inner end of the 

 hall a vertical case held series of the rocks and fossils repre- 

 senting each of the geological formations of Maryland. In the 

 cases on the gallery were arranged the collections of conchs and 

 shells, the Crustacea, and nests of birds and insects and all the 

 varieties of insect architecture, beside the fungi, mosses, 

 minerals, and a great collection of fossils from the western pai't 

 of this State. The open space in the middle of the room 

 served as a place for the meetings of the Academy and for 

 public lectures. 



Soon after removing the museum from the rooms on Charles 

 Street, it was decided to restrict the objects placed on exhibi- 

 tion, in the new building, to such as belonged particularly to 



