JO Memorial of George Brozvn Goode. 



with other similar materials, in that of a coqDoration, the Smithsonian 

 Institution, which was for a long period of j'ears obliged to pay largely 

 for their care out of its income from a private endowment. It was not 

 until 1876, however, that the existence of a National Museum, as such, 

 was definitel}' recognized in the proceedings of Congress, and its financial 

 support fully provided for. 



In earl)" da^'s, however, our principal cities had each a public museum, 

 founded and supported by private enterprise. The earliest general col- 

 lection was that formed at Norwalk, Connecticut, prior to the Revolution, 

 by a man named Arnold, described as "a curious collection of American 

 birds and insects." This it was which first awakened the interest of 

 President Adams in the natural sciences. He visited it several times as 

 he traveled from Boston to Philadelphia, and his interest culminated in 

 the foundation of the American Acadeni}' of Arts and Sciences.^ In 1790 

 Doctor Hosack brought to x'Vmerica from Europe the first cabinet of min- 

 erals ever seen on this continent. 



The earliest public establishment, however, was the Philadelphia 

 Museum, established by Charles Willson Peale in 1785, w^hich had for a 

 nucleus a stuffed paddlefish and the bones of a mammoth, and which 

 was for a time housed in the building of the American Philosophical 

 Society. In 1800 it w^as full of popular attractions. 



There were a mammoth's tooth from the Ohio, and a woman's shoe from Canton; 

 nests of the kind used to make soup of, and a Chinese fan six feet long; bits of asbestus, 

 belts of wampum, stuffed birds and feathers from the Friendly Islands, scalps, toma- 

 hawks, and long lines of portraits of great men of the Revolutionary war. To visit 

 the museum, to wander through the rooms, play upon the organ, examine the rude 

 electrical machine, and have a profile drawn by the physiognomitian, were pleasures 

 from which no stranger to the city ever refrained. 



Doctor Hare's ox5-h3'drogen blowpipe was shown in this museum by 

 Mr. Rubens Peale as early as 18 10. 



The Baltimore Museum was managed by Rembrandt Peale, and was in 

 existence as early as 18 15 and as late as 1830. 



Earlier efforts were made, however, in Philadelphia. Doctor Chovet, 

 of that cit}^, had a collection of w-ax anatomical models made by him in 

 Europe, and Professor John Morgan, of the Universit}' of Penns34vania, 

 who learned his methods from the Hunters in Eon don and Sue in Paris, 

 was also forming such a collection before the Revolution. 



1 This collection [we are told] was sold to Sir Ashton Lever, in whose apart- 

 ments in London Mr. Adams saw it again, and felt a new regret at our imperfect 

 knowledge of the productions of the three kingdoms of nature in our land. In 

 France his visits to the museums and other establishments, with the inqiiiries of 

 Academicians and other men of science and letters respecting this country, and their 

 encomiums on the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, suggested to him the idea 

 of engaging his native State to do something in the same good but neglected cause. — 

 Kirtland, Mem. American Academy of Sciences, Boston, I, xxii. 



