6 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY 



North side of the entrance to the Philosophy Chamber be a Musaeum 

 for the reception of Curiosities belonging to the College," and later, 

 on March 7, 1771, the Corporation added a new statute, XXIV, to 

 the existing " College Laws and Customs." This was enacted to read 

 as follows: 



The Librarian shall be keeper of the Museum & shall have a list of the 

 several articles in it. No person shall go into the Museum without the Li- 

 brarian or his Substitute unless by the Direction of the President & Tutors, 

 & none but such as are in the Government of the College shall take down any 

 of the Articles out of their places, but when any Stranger desires to take a 

 particular view of any article, the Librarian shall take it down and shew 

 it him. No Candle or Lamp shall be ever used in it. The Committee of 

 the Overseers and Corporation who make a visitation and Inspection of the 

 Library shall on the same day make also a Visitation and Inspection of the 

 Museum to see that the several articles are in their places & in good order, 

 and shall make report of the state of it, at the same time as they do of the 

 Library, that if any article be missing or injured, proper measures may be 

 taken to procure reparation from the person who did the damage. 



On February 11, 1 772, the Corporation thanked John Hancock for 

 "a curious Corraline on its natural bed," a specimen which I sus- 

 pect we still have, although the record is far from clear. 



On the 20th of May, 1789, the University paid £8 for 80 

 "crystal bottles with brass tops for the use of the Museum," a drain 

 upon our resources which, starting as this tiny rill, has since increased 

 to a swiftly flowing river. 



General George Washington visited the Museum in 1 789. 



An old diary in the possession of Dr. James Lincoln Huntington 

 and preserved in the old Phelps-Huntington house at Hadley, 

 Massachusetts, described a visit to the College at Hanover, New 

 Hampshire, made by some of Dr. Huntington's forebears in part to 

 see the "curiosities" owned by the College. This journey, which 

 took seven days to accomplish, began on the 20th day of January, 

 I 788, and it is by no means improbable that other of the early New 

 England institutions of learning had cabinets of natural history of 

 considerable importance by about this time. 



Our University Museum was, therefore, the first to be founded in 

 North America. The Museum of Charleston, South Carolina, began 

 in I 773, that of Salem in 1 799, and the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia in 181 2. 



