REMINISCENCES OF A FOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 287 



and 1 do not know that any city in 

 America had at that time ever contrib- 

 uted a dollar for any such purpose. In 

 the New York effort we lived from 

 hand to month at first, although the 

 gentlemen of whom I have spoken cer- 

 tainly contributed very liberally to the 

 support of the infant institution. It 

 was not, however, until the first build- 

 ing was erected by the city under the 

 autliority given by the Legislature that 

 we began to realize what an important 

 project we had in hand. 



In the meantime we lived as best we 

 might in quarters hired for the purpose, 

 the old Arsenal Building near the south 

 end of Central Park, and the Museum 

 at first was certainly a very small affair. 

 Only the enthusiasm and unfailing gen- 

 erosity of the more wealthy among the 

 trustees, who year after year put their 

 hands into their pockets to make up the 

 deficit, kept the tottering infant alive 

 during these early years of struggle. 



As usual where either individuals or 

 museums become known as collectors, 

 miscellaneous collections of every de- 

 scription came crowding in faster than 

 they could be taken care of. We strove 

 first to gain public attention and confi- 

 dence by a well-ordered exhibition of 

 our most attractive objects, storing the 

 others away to await future develop- 

 ments. Forty-four thousand dollars 

 were raised the first year by the trustees 

 and their friends, and only five thou- 

 sand people visited the Museum to re- 

 ward their efforts. Every day it 

 became more and more obvious that it 

 was quite impossible to build up by pri- 

 vate means alone a great museum 

 worthy to compete with the museums of 

 Europe. When we fully realized this, 

 we sent to the Legislature a lengthy 

 petition, signed by forty thousand citi- 

 zens, asking that a building be erected 

 by the city. Manhattan Square, con- 



sisting of eigliteen acres, was at that 

 time a remote and almost inaccessible 

 tract of land. This land was granted 

 as the site for the first building. The 

 corner stone was laid, I well remember, 

 in the presence of the President of the 

 United States, accompanied by mem- 

 bers of his cabinet, the Governor of the 

 state, and the Mayor of the city. On 

 the twenty-second of December, 1877, 

 the building was formally opened. 



The contract entered into at that 

 time between the city and the trustees 

 of the Museum has subsisted witliout 

 change for forty years. Contracts of 

 the city with other great institutions 

 such as the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art and the N^ew York Zoological So- 

 ciety have been closely modeled upon it. 

 The policy embodied in this contract 

 secures equal advantage to the institu- 

 tion and to the public. It provides for 

 the permanent occupation by the Amer- 

 ican Museum of all the buildings 

 erected or to be erected in Manhattan 

 Square, and for a free exhibition within 

 the buildings of all our collections, un- 

 der regulations agreed upon. The city 

 of New York, therefore, is the absolute 

 owner of the buildings, and the Ameri- 

 can Museum is owner of the collections 

 — an arrangement wliicli has fostered 

 delightful and beneficial relations, 

 steadily growing more close and cordial, 

 between the Museum and the people. 



jSTow the American Museum has 

 grown with incredible speed to wholly 

 unexpected magnitude, and I have 

 every reason to believe that it is now 

 regarded, and in the future will be still 

 more highly valued, as one of the great 

 educational institutions of the city, 

 worthy of the support of its citizens and 

 quite as important as the public schools, 

 as an institution whose maintenance 

 shall be provided for out of the public 

 funds. 



