LIBRARY 



BY 



ELEANOR S. PETERS 



The Library of the Museum, located on the second floor, was 

 founded in 1861 by private subscription. From a collection at that 

 time of "more than six thousand volumes," it has grown to its pres- 

 ent size, over seventy-six thousand volumes and ninety-five thousand 

 pamphlets. It serves not only the Staff of the Museum, but the 

 students and faculty of the Departments of Zoology, Palaeontology, 

 Geology and Geography of the University. It has a large and very 

 complete collection of scientific serials from all parts of the world; 

 some of these are entirely on natural history subjects, but many are 

 the scientific publications of the learned societies and academies of 

 the world, not to be found in any other Harvard library — and in 

 some cases in only one or two other libraries in the country. Over 

 one thousand such serials are received here regularly; of these, over 

 six hundred and fifty are received in exchange for the publications 

 of this Museum, others come as gifts, and many are purchased. 



The prestige of the Library has grown through many gifts of the 

 private libraries of such well-known persons as Louis and Alexander 

 Agassiz, Louis de Koninck, Josiah Dwight Whitney, William Brew- 

 ster, Walter Faxon, Samuel Garman, and William Morton Wheeler. 

 It is largely due to these and other gifts that the Library now possesses 

 many of the very early works on natural history and remarkably 

 complete collections in the fields of ornithology, herpetology, 

 ichthyology, conchology, entomology and geology. On the walls 

 hangs a very remarkable collection of prints or photographs of early 

 and recent scientists, and many original water colors by Brooks, 

 Benson, Fuertes, Sargent, Kaulemans and many others. The Library 

 has some interesting and valuable manuscripts, especially six in 

 Lamarck's holograph and a vast collection of autographs and letters 

 which often prove useful in identifying the handwriting on old labels 

 or museum specimens. 



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