the books which are 
our daily companions 
now and which we 
keep always within 
the reach of our hand, 
had not even been 
conceived, much less 
printed. With the 
exception of that of 
Lawrence, there was 
no private collection 
of birds of any mo- 
ment in the whole 
country —of which 
the Mississippi was 
the western bound- 
ary. It was but the 
glimmering of the 
dawn of that glorious 
day that was to pro- 
duce the famous com- 
pany of some of the 
greatest naturalists 
the world has ever 
seen, most of whom 
had already crossed 
the river. 
In the summer 
of 1869 Dr. Elhot 
went abroad _ pri- 
marily for study 
but also with a 
commission from 
the trustees 
through Robert L. 
Stuart, president 
of the Museum 
(who had succeeded John David Wolfe, 
the first president), to purchase for the 
Museum any material that he thought 
advisable. 
wied had lately died and the family de- 
material in Europe. 
Prince Maximilian of Neu- 
sired to dispose of his collections which 
he had made on his different journeys 
through South America and the western 
part of the United States. Dr. Elliot 
therefore visited Neuwied soon after 
arriving in Europe, taking a letter of 
introduction from the Princess Waldeck 
to the Prince of Wied.t He found the 
collections valuable because in a state 
Robert L. Stuart — The trustees of the Museum, through Robert L. 
Stuart, president, gave large commissions to Dr. Elliot for purchases of 
It was in this way that the Museum gained such 
valuable possessions as the Verreaux and Maximilian collections 
1The following . interesting reminiscence is 
quoted from conversation with Dr. Elliot: ‘‘ I was 
very cordially received by the Prince, whom I 
found to be a young man of perhaps twenty-six 
or twenty-seven, unmarried, living at the time 
in the Palace in the wood a few miles from the 
town, with his mother, the Dowager Princess, and 
his sister Elizabeth. 
My stay in Neuwied, which lasted several days, 
was very pleasant. I met the Princess Elizabeth, 
then about eighteen years old, afterward so well 
known as Carmen Sylva. She showed me in the 
park the places where they went to hear the stags 
roar during the hunting season. At that time 
the present King of Rumania, who was Prince 
Charles of Hohenzollern, had arrived in Europe 
from Rumania, and it was,generally understood 
that he was on search for a wife. One afternoon 
when the Princess was walking with me, she spoke 
of the matter and wondered whom he would take. 
A day or so afterward the Prince, a very pleasant, 
137 
