250 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



.tution in this country. No other form of public museum is of 

 greater interest to the people. The plentifully stored aquarium is 

 an ever-chan<ring exhibition of beautiful and useful living things 

 not seen easily in their natural habitat. It quickly becomes a center 

 of recreation for the masses, contributing always toward a whole- 

 some appreciation of nature. It has great educational value, stimu- 

 lating constant inquiry respecting our heritage of the waters, which 

 a wasteful civilization must take still greater pains to conserve. 



The i)ublic aquarium, with its exhibits of living aquatic animals, 

 is an institution that has come into existence during comparatively 

 recent years. There are few existing aquariums that date back 

 as far as 50 years. In some European cities the aquarium is a fea- 

 ture of the zoological garden, while in others it is a separate insti- 

 tution. An aquarium usually is established in connection with the 

 work of a biological laboratory, as at the notable zoological station 

 at Naples and the oceanographic museum and laboratory at Monaco. 

 The aquarium in New York City is maintained by the city, its 

 management being in the hands of the New York Zoological Society, 

 which provides all exhibits from its private funds. The aquariums 

 in Boston and Detroit are municipal institutions, controlled in each 

 case by a department of parks. The aquarium in San Francisco, 

 built Avith private funds and under the control of the California 

 Academy of Sciences, is maintained with funds provided by the 

 city. An aquarium larger than any now in existence is l3eing 

 planned in the city of Chicago, to be built with private funds, man- 

 aged by a scientific organization, and maintained by the city. An 

 aquarium has long been maintained at the headquarters of the 

 United States Bureau of Fisheries in Washington. There are a 

 few small aquariums in European and American cities that are con- 

 ducted entirely as private business enterprises. There are probably 

 more than 40 aquariums in various parts of the world to which the 

 public is admitted, exclusive of several small ones connected with 

 biological laboratories. 



It was long the custom of the National Commission of Fisheries to 

 operate large temporary aquariums at American industrial exposi- 

 tions.- These splendid governmental exhibits were successful in the 

 highest degree. A few of the aquarium buildings were architecturally 

 beautiful. It is a remarkable fact that at the world fairs of Chicago, 

 Atlanta, St. Louis, Buffalo, Omaha, Charleston, Nashville, and other 

 cities the aquarium attracted, in each case, more visitors than any 

 other single exhibit of the exposition. The larger permanent aqua- 

 riums of the world usually attract the attention and patronage of the 

 people to a greater extent than do zoological gardens or museums of 

 natural history or art. Possessing attractiveness to such a degree, the 

 aquarium should be more than an exhibition of interesting things. It 

 has undeveloped possibilities for educational usefulness and has long 

 occupied an important position in the field of scientific research. 



The collections of the larger public aquariums consist of living 

 marine and fresh-water animals. It is the character of the exhibits — 

 whether of marine or fresh-water forms — that determines the cost of 

 maintenance in an institution of this kind. An aquarium with exhi- 



- Descriptions of some of tliese aqiiariuins, witli illustrations, will be found in the re- 

 ports of the United States Commission of Fisheries for the years 1888, 1804, 1896, 1901, 

 and 1904, and the volume of the bulletin of the commission for the year 1893. 



