held in Charleston in March of that year. At this time Charles- 

 ton was fortunate in the possession of a galaxy of scientific men, 

 including Bachman, Holbrook, Tuomej^ and Holmes, Shepard, 

 Kurtz, Gibbes, Ravenel, and others. All of these and the general 

 public were responding to the enthusiasm of the elder Agassiz, 

 who was a professor in the Medical College. Agassiz con- 

 ceived the idea of re-organizing and developing the Museum 

 on a firmer basis and rallied his colleagues to the support of the 

 plan with such success that within a few months a permanent 

 salaried curator was appointed and actual work started. The 

 building of the Medical College containing the Museum was 

 about to be razed in preparation for the erection of the Roper 

 Hospital. For this and other reasons the College of Charleston 

 became custodian of the Museum, which occupied the entire 

 second floor of the main building. The Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society had gradually become defunct, but the Museum 

 found new support in the Elliott Society, which achieved notable 

 fame in the decade before the Civil War, chiefly through the 

 brilliant work of McCrady. The Society did much to upbuild 

 the Museum and with the ardent and devoted labors of the cu- 

 rator, Professor Holmes, most gratifying results were achieved. 

 At this auspicious moment, the country was again swept by 

 war and the collections of the Museum were either buried on the 

 campus or packed up and sent to Edgefield, where Professor 

 Holmes refugeed and where part of the collection was destroyed 

 by fire. Immediately after the war Professor Holmes brought 

 back and installed the collections. Professor McCrady became 

 curator in 1869 and was succeeded in 1873 by Dr. Gabriel E. 

 Manigault, to whose skill and energy is due the large osteolo- 

 gical collection and most of the birds and large mammals. Fol- 

 lowing the death of Dr. Manigault in 1899, Dr. George H. Ash- 

 ley became curator and endeavored to stem the tide of neglect 

 and reduced support which seemed destined to overwhelm the 

 Museum. 



31 



