430 KKPOKT OF NATIONAL MI'SKUM, 1903. 



10. CHICAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



In the year 1857 an association "'to promote science" was organized 

 under the name of "'The Chicago Academy of Natural Sciences." It 

 began at once to make collections, but the conmiercial crisis of that 

 year was unfavorable to the development of the enterprise. 



In 1859 and 1865 the association was incorporated under the name 

 "The Chicago Academy of Sciences." Encouraged personally l)y L. 

 Agassiz, they laid in 1863 the foundation of a scientific museum, which 

 was deposited in a house near the present city hall. The collections 

 were enlarged with the help of expeditions, but in 1866 some of them 

 were destroyed by fire, after which accident the academ}^ began the 

 construction of a fireproof building 50 feet long 55 feet wide, and 50 

 feet high, not far from the present Auditorium. 



In 1868 the first meeting was held in the new building, which was 

 of brick, the floors of iron and tiles, the .stairs and main doors of iron, 

 and the windows with iron shutters. The museum was in the upper 

 story, 28 feet high, a large space with broad galleries, and was soon 

 filled with precious collections, including 10,000 glasses with crustaceans 

 and 8,000 species of marine shells, and the library was also largely 

 increased. 



In 1871, at the great conflagration, howev^er, everything was 

 destroyed, although at the beginning of the fire they had trusted in the 

 supposed security of the building, but not the least thing was left of 

 the collections. Not more than twelve days after this disaster it was 

 decided to erect a new building on the same spot. In that building 

 the first meeting was held in 1873. but in consequence of pecuniar}' 

 difficulties the academy w^as obliged to leave these quarters in 1886 and 

 store its collections. 



In 1891 a plan was considered of associating with the new Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, but the members preferred not to sacrifice their inde- 

 pendence, and when a rich citizen, M. Laflin, ofl'ered to spend ^75,000, 

 and the Lincoln Park board ofl'ered a space and $25,000 for a new 

 building, the architects, Normand S. Patton and Reynolds Fisher, of 

 Chicago (now the firm Patton. Fisher & Miller), were charged with 

 making the plans. They designed a building of 750 feet frontage and 

 a dome 130 feet high, of which plan, however, only the northern- 

 side building could be executed (Plate 16). It lies isolated in Lincoln 

 Park, in the northern part of the city, at the lake near the zoological 

 garden and the hothouses of the park, and called after its patron, who 

 died in 1897, the '-Matthew Laflin Memorial Building." The nuiseum 

 was opened to the public in 1894. This wing (part) is 133 feet long, 

 61 feet wide, and 70 feet high, and is fireproof. The wooden floors 

 are laid on cement; the, cases, desks, and other furniture, the doors 

 and sash are of wood, AVith respect to the tireproof construction I 



