306 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



porary relief, but the time is not far distant when a new and absolutely 

 fire-proof building, fully equipped with new cases adapted for the 

 preservation and display of specimens, will be a necessity. In the 

 meantime, however, much can be done. The cases need a thorough 

 overhauling and in many instances the specimens need to be reclassified 

 and rearranged, while many labels need to be rewritten. Crowded 

 cases can be relieved by displaying typical specimens and preserving 

 the others for special study. The boy or girl who comes to the Acad- 

 emy to identify a bird he has seen in the yard should be able, as soon 

 as he finds the corresponding specimen here, to learn its common and 

 scientific name, its family and its habitat. The boy who reads in the 

 life of Boone about a beaver should be able to come to the Academy 

 and see a stuffed beaver. 



It is interesting to watch the children in the South Kensington 

 museum, in London, flock about a case placed there for their especial 

 benefit, containing the commonest butterflies properly named. Inter- 

 esting, too, it is to watch older students studying the cases in which 

 types of the orders are scientifically arranged, and under them types 

 of the families in each order, all clearly labeled, and forming a graphic 

 and indelible lesson. Let us, in our humble way, follow the lead of 

 that great London museum and encourage our young students to 

 observe, to compare and to study. 



THE HISTORICAL DEPARTMENT. 



There is another department of the museum in which the Academy 

 has made a beginning but in which more can be done. This may be 

 called the historical. It is natural for man to be interested in histor- 

 ical trophies, in a tattered flag carried through a war, in a sword cap- 

 tured from the enemy. There is interest even in the weather-beaten 

 wooden ball that topped the flagstaff of the old court house. 



No less interesting are the objects connected with our every-day 

 life, objects which we scorn to preserve, but which in a generation 

 become rare and curious. How many of the children of to-day, for 

 instance, ever saw a tinder box? When they read about a tinder box 

 they may ask their grandmother and she may say that she saw one in 

 her girlhood. But some day the grandmothers will be gone and with 

 them the recollection of the tinder box. Fortunately, the Academy 

 possesses a tinder box, but there are many other contrivances of the 

 pioneer days that it does not possess. If any of these are hidden 

 away in a dark and forgotten attic, let them be brought out and 

 placed where they can be preserved. 



THE ACADEMY LIBRARY. 



From the museum to the library is but a short step. For scientific 

 work, scientific books are a necessity. Technical books and journals 

 are needed for the specialist, handbooks and more popular works 

 are no less needed for the beginner. Thanks to the thousands of 



