Afuscuni-IIistorv and Musciojis of Ilisfory. 69 



Mauy of the great national museums of Europe had their origin in the 

 private collections of mouarchs. France claims the honor of having been 

 the first to change a royal into a national museum, when, in 1789, the 

 lyouvre came into the possession of a republican government. It is very 

 clear, however, that democratic England, by its action in 1753, stands 

 several decades in advance — its act, moreover, being one of deliberate 

 founding rather than a species of conquest. 



The first chapter in the history of American museums is short. In 

 colonial days there were none. In the early years of the Republic, the 

 establishment of such institutions by city. State, or Federal Government 

 would not have been considered a legitimate act. When the General 

 Government came into the posses.sion of extensive collections as the result 

 of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition in 1842, they were placed in charge 

 of a private organization, the National Institution, and later, together 



mens, and the British Museum as well as the Ashmolean was built around a nucleus 

 of American material. Indeed, we can not doubt that interest in American explora- 

 tion had largely to do with the development of natural history museums. 



In those days all Europe was anxious to hear of the wonders of the new-found con- 

 tinent, and to see the strange objects which explorers might be able to bring back 

 with them, and mouarchs sought eagerly to secure novelties in the shape of animals 

 and plants. 



Columbus was charged by Queen Isabella to collect birds, and it is recorded that 

 he took back to Spain the skins of several kinds of animals. Even to this day may 

 be seen in the old collegiate church in Siena a votive offering placed there nearly 

 four centuries ago by the discoverer of America. It consists of the armor worn by 

 him when he first stepped upon the soil of the New World and the rostrum of a 

 swordfish killed on the American coast. 



The state papers of Great Britain contain many entries of interest in this connec- 

 tion. King Jai:ies I was an enthusiastic collector. December 15, 1609, Ivord South- 

 ampton wrote to Lord vSalisbur}' that he had told the King about Virginia squirrels 

 brought into England which were said to fly. The King very earnestly asked 

 if none were provided for him — whether vSalisbury had none for him — and said he 

 was sure Salisbury would get him one. The writer apologizes for troubling Lord 

 Salisbury, "but," continued he, "you know so well how he [the King] is affected 

 to such toys." 



Charles I appears to have been equally curious in such matters. In 1637 he sent 

 John Tradescant the younger to Virginia "to gather all rarities of flowers, plants, 

 and shells." 



In 1625 we find Tradescant writing to one Nicholas that it is the Duke of Buck- 

 ingham's pleasure that he should deal with all merchants from all places, but espe- 

 cially from Virginia, Bermuda, Ncwfovindland, Guinea, the Amazons, and the East 

 Indies, for all manner of rare beasts, fowls and birds, shells and shining stones, etc. 



In the Dome.stic Correspondence of Charles I, in another place, July, 1625, is a 

 "Note of tilings desired from Guinea, for which letters are to be written to the mer- 

 chants of the Guinea Company." Among other items referred to are "an elephant's 

 head, with the teeth very large ; a river horse's head ; strange sorts of fowls ; birds' 

 and fishes' skins; great flying and sucking fishes; all sorts of serpents; dried fmits, 

 shining stones, etc." Still farther on is a note of one Jeremy Blackman's charge — 

 in all, ^20 — for transporting four deer from Virginia, including corn and a place 

 made of wood for them to lie in. 



