The American Museum Journal 



^ uL. XI i-EBRLARY, I'Jll No. 2 



QUOTATIONS CONCERNING MORRIS KETCHUM JESUP AND 

 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM' 



WHIvX Ml-. On- called upon Mr. Jesup to recjuest his con.sent to his 

 iioiiiiiiatioii as President of the Chamber of ( "oniinerce, he 

 found him t-nurossed in the stud}- of some huildinj;- plans whicli 

 covered his table. " Mr. Jesup," said Mr. Orr, " I have got a piece of 

 interestin«j news to ,u-i\e yon." " .\11 right," said Mr. Jesup, "just wait a 

 moment until 1 show you this plan." " Ihil, my dear Jesup," remonstrated 

 Mr. Orr, "this business of mine is important. I have come to tell you 

 that I wish to nominate you for President of the Chamber of Connnerce." 

 "Indeed," said Mr. Jesup, " 1 am glad to hear it, but, look here, I want to 

 show you what a splendid plan this is." And he tiu'ned back again to 

 the papers on the table. It was only after he had relieved his mind of this 

 paramount interest that he had leisure to appreciate the new honor and 

 responsibility to which his colleagues of the Chamber invited him. 



The plan wliich Mr. Orr found Mr. Jesup studying was that of the new- 

 wing of the American Museum of Natural History. The place which the 

 ^Museum held in Mr. Jesup's regard, the long and devoted service which he 

 rendered it, and the eminence which it attained under his leadership are 

 well known. For more than a cjuarter of a century it was his controlling 

 intere^st, and it remains to-day his most enduring momnnent. 



"The two grandly distinctive features of Mr. Jesup's administration," 

 writes President Osborn, "were, first, the desire to popularize science 

 through the arrangement and exhibition of collections in such a simple and 

 attractive manner as to render tiiem intelligible to all visitors; and secondly, 

 his recognition that at the foundation of popular science is pure science, 

 and his determination, which increased with advancing years, that the 

 Museum should be as famous for its .scientific research and (explorations 

 as for its popular exhil)itions of educational work." 



' MoHHi.s Ketchi-.m .Jksip: A ("hahactkr .Skktcii. My William Adams Brown. 

 Charles .Scribner's Sons, 1910. 



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