scope of the institution, but a careful consideration of the pros- 

 pectus of the founders convinces the writer that the essential 

 features of the modern conception of a museum were present in 

 their minds at that early date, and that we of the present genera- 

 tion are merely carrying out and amplifying the plans which 

 they so ardently fostered. To them belongs, therefore, the dis- 

 tinction, not merely of founding the first American museum, 

 but of conceiving an idea one hundred and forty years ago which 

 has become national in the last quarter century. 



The investigations of Mr. William G. Mazyck and others 

 have made familiar many interesting episodes in the history of 

 the Museum during the nineteenth century. It is only natural 

 that some of these concern times of discouragement and diffi- 

 culty, but it is surprising to learn of periods of astonishing pop- 

 ular enthusiasm. The significance of the Museum and the es- 

 sential peculiarities of its present position can be appreciated 

 best from a consideration of the conditions under which it has 

 developed, and the occasion of this article may be pleaded as an 

 excuse for a review, from another point of view, of facts already 

 published in the Bulletin from time to time, 



THE FIRST EPOCH 



The extent to which the Museum realized the ambitions of its 

 founders while under the auspices of the Charleston Library 

 Society is uncertain. That a considerable collection was ob- 

 tained immediately after the founding of the Museum is shown 

 by Ramsay's statement that "many specimens of natural his- 

 tory" were lost in the fire which almost totally destroyed the 

 Library in 1778. The prosecution of scientific activities which 

 this statement implies during the time of the Revolution is in- 

 deed remarkable. The fire, serious as it was, did not cause any 

 pause in the development of the Library. The part of the col- 

 lections saved was properly cared for and added to, and the pro- 

 portionate attention devoted to the Museum is best shown by 



26 



