public it was apparently not possible to make adequate provis- 

 ion for his support. The Museum, however, continued to 

 flourish. Mills, writing in 1826, says: 



"The Museum is situate on Chalmers Street, nearly fronting 

 the city square, and is well stored with curious objects in natural 

 history, Indian antiquities, foreign and native works of art, etc. ' ' 



The Museum was established in Chalmers Street in 1824, and 

 strenuous efforts were made to secure funds for a permanent 

 building. An article on the editorial page of the Courier of No- 

 vember 23, 1824, pictures in a very vivid way a situation which 

 has been almost exactly duplicated within the past decade, when 

 the need of an adequate building and the value of the Museum 

 to the city have been constantly presented to the people. Space 

 forbids a detailed comparison of recent conditions with those of 

 1824, but one statement deserves special notice. The unknown 

 writer of the article says: "In these enlightened times, a public 

 Museum is as necessary an appendage to a city, as a public 

 newspaper or a public library." This sentiment has been ex- 

 pressed not infrequently in the past twenty-five years and its 

 truth is becoming generally recognized, but how many, even 

 among museum workers, are aware that it was published in con- 

 crete form as early as 1824? It may be said in passing that this 

 same article refers to Peale's Museum in such a way as to indi- 

 cate that it was held up as something of an object lesson at this 

 time. Peale's Museum was established in Philadelphia in 1785, 

 and was, perhaps, the second museum organized in America. 

 Although it never compared in breadth of plan with the Charles- 

 ton Museum, it aroused much interest and its collections were 

 finally incorporated with those of other institutions. 



It is hardly possible in the limits of this article to convey an 

 adequate conception of the fervor of popular interest in muse- 

 ums at this time. The newspapers of 1826 and 1827 carry in- 

 structive advertisements showing that the Museum was open to 

 the public every day and every evening, always "brilliantly 

 illuminated" and often with "a Band of Music!" Nor should 



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