INTRODUCTION 



BY 



THOMAS BARBOUR 



I HAVE put together these rambhng and disjointed notes for the 

 simple reason that what I have to say does not easily lend itself to a 

 connected narrative. But information concerning the origin of the 

 Museum and the beginnings of teaching and research in the several 

 branches of natural history may, perhaps, be read with interest at the 

 next centennial celebration of the University. 



My friend. Professor Samuel Eliot Morison, who has been prepar- 

 ing the official history of Harvard College, for the Tercentenary 

 celebration this year, has provided me with the earliest record con- 

 cerning the Museum and suggested my examining the early records 

 of Harvard College published by the Colonial Society of Massa- 

 chusetts (volume 31, 1935). This is a veritable treasury of informa- 

 tion. 



The first reference which Professor Morison has found is in the 

 account of the visit of Francis Goelet to "The Repositerry of Curi- 

 osity." The name Museum was not used at this date, October 25, 

 1750. Goelet lists a number of curiosities which included "a piece 

 of tanned negro hide, horns and bones, fishes, skins and other ob- 

 jects." This was the sort of material which found its way into most 

 of the early collections. 



In 1764 the "Repositerry of Curiosities" burned along with the 

 library, in the fire which consumed Harvard Hall. Shortly after the 

 fire a contemporary poem contained the following stanza: 



Why could ye not, the fani'd Museum spare, 

 Unrival'd in Columbia, where my Sons 

 Beheld, unveil'd by Winthrop's artful Hand, 

 The Face of Nature, beaudful and fair? 



Professor John Winthrop, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and 

 Natural Philosophy, was evidently the first custodian. 



By August I, 1769 the "Musaeum" was assigned a new home, 

 by vote of the President and Fellows, "That the Apartment on the 



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