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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



allowable, why not a wax frog and a 

 celluloid fish? 



One of the first efforts in the line of 

 fish groups, that by Mr. Alfred J. Klein 

 in the Brooklyn Museum, showing the 

 fishes of a coral reef, is one of the best, 

 partly from the nature of the subject, 

 which affords more scope for attractive 

 surroundings than is usually presented. 

 And while the credit for this group, pre- 

 pared in 1907, is entirely due to Mr. 

 Klein, yet it really dates from a memo- 

 randum written in 1893 after an inter- 

 view with Dr. Goode, " make a group of 

 red snappers with natural surroundings." 

 It embodies principles, carried to great 

 perfection in the habitat groups, that 



were independently worked out in the 

 construction of a group of octopus, form- 

 ing part of the exhibit of the United 

 States National Museum at the Chicago 

 Exposition of 1893. Painted background 

 connected with the foreground, rounded 

 corners and overhead lighting were all 

 used in this small group, and while in 

 comparison with what has been done 

 since, it now seems a very crude little 

 affair, yet it contained the germs of the 

 beautiful Orizaba group. 



The curved, panoramic background 

 and overhead lighting — borrowed con- 

 sciously or unconsciously from our 

 cycloramas — permit the last touches 

 in the way of illusion and control of light 



THE WHARF-PILE GROUP 

 A new marine group in the American Museimi made by Mr. I. Matausch and other preparators 

 imder the supervision of Mr. Roy W. Miner. It shows the sponges, hydroids, sea anemones and other 

 invertebrate animals with which wharf piles in favored localities are crowded below low-water mark 



