162 Naturalist at Large 



One of the pleasantest features of life in the Museum 

 grew entirely by chance. During one long spell of bad 

 weather Henry Bigelow and I began to bring our lunches 

 to the Museum and ate together in my back office. Then 

 it occurred to me that we had in Gilbert, working here 

 in the Museum at odd tasks, a most courtly old-fashioned 

 colored servant who, as he put it himself, had been left to 

 the Museum with Mr. Brewster's collection of birds. We 

 installed an electric stove, proper sink and electric refrig- 

 erator, and screened these objects away in a corner of my 

 office, which is a large one, so that they do not obtrude. 



William Morton W^heeler joined our group and in time 

 the Eateria became quite an institution. As long as Mr. 

 Lowell was President of the University he not only called 

 up frequently and said that he was coming to lunch but 

 brought guests who he thought would be interested in 

 learning about the Museum under entirely informal cir- 

 cumstances. I remember one day he brought Sir Frederic 

 Kenyon of the British Museum and Sir Henry Miers with 

 him and they paid us a most enjoyable visit. My friend 

 William Claflin, now the Treasurer of the University and 

 its most useful officer, has taken up this same practice to 

 our great advantage and joy. 



Rosamond provided a lunchbook, a beautifully bound 

 parchment volume. Each person who lunches in the Eateria 

 for the first time signs his name in full, thereafter only 

 his initials. From September 2, 1930, to September 18, 

 1942, there have been over 20,800 signatures in this book. 

 We have kept a separate book for distinguished visitors 

 in which there are about 300 names for the same period of 

 time. A casual examination shows that these visitors have 



