220 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the inestimable advantages which it 

 'extends to all and particularly to the 

 young, and we also believe that the 

 people are willing to do their share in 

 maintaining and in extending the build- 

 ing, in order to make it possible to reap 

 the benefits of this munificent fund. 



In the death of Mrs. Morris K. Jesup 

 on June 17, 1914, the Museum lost 

 another member of the original and dis- 

 tinguished circle of its founders, for 

 through her very close association with 

 Mr. Jesup's interests and ambitions dur- 

 ing his lifetime, and her constant sym- 

 pathy in, and support of, all his plans 

 and undertakings, we may always recall 

 Mrs. Jesup's name with that of her hus- 

 band. Her personal concern in the wel- 

 fare of the Museum was not lessened but 

 rather deepened after Mr. Jesup's death, 

 because it was her earnest desire to repre- 

 sent and continue his interests, and her 

 judgment and her gifts were always 

 guided by what she believed he would 

 have wished her to do. Her visits to the 

 Museum were full of association with his 

 plans, and after the lapse of a few years 

 became a source of increased delight. 



Mrs. Jesup's interest in the Museum, 

 like that of her husband, was so broad 

 that it extended to practically all depart- 

 ments. One evidence of this is the char- 

 acter and variety of her gifts to the 

 institution. Among her early gifts was a 

 large mass of pink tourmaline from San 

 Diego, California, which enriched the 

 collections of the department of mineral- 

 ogy. Through her generosity the de- 

 partment of anthropology received a 

 large collection of ethnological material 

 from the Arapaho. She also presented 

 an important series of specimens illus- 

 trating the industries, ceremonials and 



art of the Shoshone, Bannock, Ute and 

 Kootenai Indians and later ethnological 

 collections from the Gros Ventre, Assini- 

 boine. Crow and Sioux. The department 

 of vertebrate palaeontology is indebted to 

 Mrs. Jesup for a skeleton of Tyrannosau- 

 rus, a skull of Triceratops and other 

 remains of dinosaurs of the Upper Creta- 

 ceous beds of Montana. She also gave 

 funds through which were obtained skulls 

 and skeletons of Diadactes, Pariotichus, 

 Dimetrodon and other primitive reptiles 

 and amphibians of the Permian of Texas. 

 The departments of invertebrate zoology 

 and of mammalogy and ornithology were 

 enriched by the collections that were se- 

 cured through her generosity. 



Perhaps the most important of her 

 gifts were the three Cape York meteor- 

 ites —" Ahnighito," "Dog," and "Wo- 

 man," presented to the Museum in 1908. 

 These meteorites were brought from 

 Cape York by Admiral Peary. "Ahni- 

 ghito" is the largest known meteorite in 

 the world, weighing thirty-six and one- 

 half tons. 



In 1913 Mrs. Jesup offered to contri- 

 bute $25,000, one-half of the sum needed, 

 to equip the second Stefansson expedi- 

 tion, but as Mr. Stefansson's work was 

 taken up by the Canadian Government, 

 Mrs. Jesup was never called upon to 

 make this contribution. 



The pleasure which a great bequest 

 gives to all the friends of the institution 

 is shadowed by a feeling of sorrow when 

 it comes with the loss of such a noble- 

 hearted woman. It is true that Mrs. 

 Jesup's name will endure in association 

 with her many individual gifts, but we 

 hope that the Trustees may find a way 

 of perpetuating her memory in connec- 

 tion with some special exhibition or col- 

 lection. 



