THE HISTORY OF THE M. C. Z. 



BY 



GEORGE RUSSELL AGASSIZ 



Chairman of the Visiling Committee and Member oj the Faculty 



The Museum of Comparative Zoology originated in the specimens 

 already owned by the University and those that Louis Agassiz stored 

 when he came to this country in 1847, in a little shanty built on piles 

 on the banks of the Charles River, close to the bridge that now leads 

 to the Harvard Stadium. In 1850 the collections had outgrown this 

 primitive shelter and were removed to a wooden building where the 

 old gymnasium now stands. By 1852 the care of the collection had 

 grown to be more than the very modest means of the Professor could 

 meet, and a fund of twelve thousand dollars was raised by private 

 subscription to purchase his share of it for the College. The expense 

 of its charge, however, still remained in his hands, and he devoted 

 untiring enthusiasm to increasing and maintaining the specimens. 



In 1858 the Corporation of Harvard College made a small allow- 

 ance for the care of the collections, and during the same year a fund 

 of fifty thousand dollars, left by Mr. Francis C. Gray, was placed at 

 the disposal of Louis Agassiz for the purchase of specimens, under the 

 condition that the institution so aided should be called "The Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology." Thus it happens that this Museum 

 is saddled with a cumbersome and inappropriate name. Accus- 

 tomed to the European method of seeking government aid, Agassiz 

 went to the State Legislature, and to everyone's amazement, ex- 

 tracted one hundred thousand dollars from those hard-headed New 

 Englanders, while at the same time a further fund of seventy-one 

 thousand dollars was raised by private subscription. With these re- 

 sources he built what was then intended to be, and now is, the East 

 portion of the North wing of the University Museum. This first bit 

 of the building consisted of four rooms on a floor, was five stories 

 high, and was completed in i860. Thus was housed the first of the 

 large University Museums in the New World. Many of the early 



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