HISTORY 1 7 



assistants were later placed in charge of museums, which were after- 

 wards established all over the country. Most of the prominent 

 naturalists of that generation were men who had worked under Louis 

 Agassiz. 



The Museum was not originally directly under the control of the 

 University, which gave the land. It was administered from its own 

 funds, and under the direction of a Board of Trustees, representing 

 the Commonwealth and the University. Further grants from the 

 legislature and private subscriptions, as well as the results of his own 

 expeditions, and material gathered by exchange, enabled Louis 

 Agassiz rapidly to build up the Museum collections. He made spe- 

 cial efforts to maintain the growth of the Museum during the war of 

 the Rebellion, " that when our troubles are over it may appear that 

 even civil wars cannot cripple the onward progress of science in the 

 New World." Indeed Louis Agassiz pushed the development with 

 such zest as to seriously cripple his own slender means. To put the 

 family fortunes on its feet, Mrs. Agassiz organized a girls' school, 

 famous in its day, where among other teachers were Louis Agassiz 

 and two of his children. 



By 1867 the first portion of the wing, begun in 1859, was inade- 

 quate for the accumulating mass of material that poured in from all 

 sides. The lecture rooms were invaded, until it was almost impos- 

 sible to move about in them. In 1868 the collection of fishes had 

 already become one of the first in the world, and the marine in- 

 vertebrates were probably without a rival among other museums. 

 Oceanography has always been one of the chief interests of the 

 Museum since Louis Agassiz's early days in the United States, when 

 he explored the waters of Florida in the "Bibb," under the auspices 

 of the Coast Survey. 



Louis Agassiz's most important expedition was to Brazil in 1865- 

 66, financed by Nathaniel Thayer. Dom Pedro II, a patron of 

 science, welcomed the expedition when it arrived in Brazil. Its mem- 

 bers were guests of the nation. Steamers were placed at their dis- 

 posal to take them up the Amazon. The Governors of the various 

 states supplied men, means, and material to assist them in every 

 possible way. The collections sent back form some of the most im- 

 portant of the Museum; especially that of the fishes from the 

 Amazon and its tributaries. 



