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OPENING OF THE ESSEX MUSEUM OF 

 NATURAL HISTORY BY THE COUNTESS 

 OF WARWICK, AND THE RE-OPENING 

 OF THE WEST HAM TECHNICAL INSTI- 

 TUTE BY MR. PASSMORE EDWARDS. 



IMPORTANT SPEECHES ON THE OBJECTS AND METHODS 

 OF LOCAL MUSEUMS AND ON TECHNICAL EDUCA- 

 TION, BY LADY WARWICK, MR, PASSMORE EDWARDS 

 AND PROF. MELDOLA. 



Thursday, October i8th, 1900. 

 [With Plates VIII. and IX.] 



The inception and progress of the Essex Museum of Natural 

 History has been fully recorded in the Essex Naturalist, and 

 in the annual reports of the Council of the Club since the 

 original proposal was placed before the Town Council of the 

 Borough of West Ham in the autumn of 1897. The Foundation- 

 stone of the Museum was laid by Mr. Passmore Edwards on 

 October 6th, 1898 (Essex Nat., X., pp. 337-46) and one year 

 later on the above-named afternoon, October 18th, 1900, the 

 completion of the second stage in its development was gracefully 

 and worthily emphasised by the public opening of the building 

 by the Right Honourable the Countess of Warwick. On the 

 same afternoon the magnificent Municipal Technical Institute, 

 which had been partially destroyed by the disastrous fire of 

 October 23rd, 1899, was re-opened by Mr. Passmore Edwards 

 to whose generosity the friends of the Museum are so greatly 

 indebted. 



For the purposes of the meeting the Curator had prepared 

 a pamphlet which explained the scheme of the Museum and the 

 principles of the agreement between the Corporation of West 

 Ham and the Essex Field Club. It also contained a description 

 of the building kindly furnished by Mr. S. B. Russell, 

 A.R.LB.A., the Architect. To this brochure the reader is 

 referred' 



The ceremony of opening the Museum came first and a 

 large company of guests (members of the Corporation and the 



I " The Essex Museum of Natural History, . . A short statement of the Constitution, 

 Aims and Methods of the Museimi" (with portrait of Mr. Passmore Edwards.) By W Cole, 

 F.L.S., F.E.S., Curator. Price 3d, 



