JAMES MUNSON BARNARD. 839 



finally taking up his connections the corporation bestowed upon him 

 the honorary degree of Master of Arts. These years not only greatly 

 extended the range of his intellectual interests and gave him opportunities 

 which he eagerly embraced of seasonably furthering scientific objects 

 which were in need of a helping hand, but brought into his life relations 

 of personal friendship and good-will, both with his teachers and with his 

 fellow-students, which added greatly to its happiness. 



But after all, it was the world of men rather than the world of things 

 that he cared for most, and the establishment of the Social Science 

 Association in 1862 aroused in Mr. Barnard warmer sympathies and a 

 still greater measure of activity. He became one of its most convinced 

 promoters, and for some time, during a vacancy in the secretaryship, 

 maintained the office of the Association in Boston, and made it the head- 

 quarters of the department committees upon public health and some 

 special branches of education. The Association, after his death, put on 

 record their appreciation " of his devotion to its social and economical 

 interests, and to the extension of its work in education and art, and of 

 the importance of the results of his zeal." 



It was probably this work for the Social Science Association which 

 disposed him first to take an active part in the establishment of the 

 Museum of Fine Arts in 1876, and then to further the policy of fur- 

 nishing the public schools with casts and photographs of statues and 

 paintings. This idea, which is now generally entertained, and which 

 school committees and public libraries rival the publishers in pro- 

 moting, Mr. Barnard had already advocated both by precept and by 

 example. As early as 1873 he had obtained in London and placed 

 in the hall of the Girls' High School a complete set of the casts of 

 the Frieze of the Parthenon. 



In recognition of these public services Mr. Barnard was in 1869 

 made a member of this Academy, in Class II, Section 3, on the nomina- 

 tion of Professor Benjamin Peirce, Dr. Jeffries Wyman, Dr. B. A. 

 Gould, and Mr. Alexander Agassiz. This was done, as Mr. Peirce 

 wrote to him in informing him of his election, because of "his patriotic 

 devotion to the best interests of the country, because he had been the 

 strength of the Social Science organization, and because, when anything 

 had to be done for science or literature, he was, from the great respect 

 in which he was held, and the weight of his influence, the first man 

 whose support was sought." 



Meanwhile he did not for a moment forget, and he did not neglect, 

 the object of his earliest interest. This he now j)romoted chiefly by 



