40 Cincinnati Society of Xatural Ilisfori/ 



in private hands. If all duplicates in excess of six for any one 

 species could be exchanged for material of other localities, 

 the value would again be greatly increased. Thus a fair chance 

 still remains for Cincinnati to piece together a representative 

 collection of what her own rocks yield. How long this chance 

 will last is uncertain, for the largest single collection is in the 

 market. The collection here referred to is that of the late 

 Samuel A. Miller, temporarily loaned to the University. To 

 let this slip would be to dishonor the names of the distinguished 

 geologists who were born here or spent their lives in Cincinnati. 



But the question of museums should not be thought of 

 in terms of any one science, or any one generation, or any one 

 city. The preservation of records is a mark and measure of 

 civilization whether the records be in language or in concrete 

 objects. The widespread awakening of the last twenty-five 

 years is not so much a sudden burst of civilization as a symbol 

 and phase of conservation and a method of education. Park 

 Commissions and School Boards seem to share about ecjually 

 the responsibility for this intellectual entertainment of the 

 people. In favored cities private munificence has done more 

 than either, but its work has been more localized. Undeniably, 

 the work has entered a new and more vigorous phase, since it 

 has ceased to be the semisocial entertainment of the few and 

 has taken its place in community education. 



The late William Hubbel Fisher, who was President of 

 our Natural History Society at the time of his death, was one 

 of those who saw clearly the changed conditions and the new 

 opportunities. Under his guidance the Society prepared cases 

 of specimens (birds, minerals and insects) to be circulated 

 among the schools. With no improvement since they were first 

 made, and no increase in number (seven sets of three cases 

 each), these continued to circulate up to the year 1916. The 

 greedy demand for these poor makeshifts is pathetic. When 

 they had been circulating five years, Mr. Norman W. Harris, 

 a Chicago banker, visited Cincinnati (among other places) to 

 ascertain the workings of the plan. Several months later he 

 announced a gift of $'250,000 to the Field Museum, to endow a 



