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PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



VOL. 5, PP. 241-288. PLATES 17. 18. MAY, 1919. 



BIOGRAPHIC MEMOIRS OF DECEASED FELLOWS 



HENRY AUGUSTUS WARD 

 (Read before the Academy, December 9, 1918.) 



A small pebble in the rock collection of the University of 

 Rochester may be considered the germ of not only the University 

 Museum but of most of the museums of America. It is a rounded 

 fragment of hornblende gneiss crossed by series of black lines so 

 regular as to resemble a bit of dark Scotch plaid. The description, 

 dictated to the writer by Professor Ward, reads : "Found in a 

 stone pile in corner of zigzag rail fence, surrounding his home, 

 site of the Jewish temple, corner of Grove and Gibbs Street, about 

 1837. The first specimen I ever collected." 



He evidently began his life work at an early age. He told the 

 writer how as a lad he climbed to the platform of Corinthian 

 Hall, just at the beginning of some exercises, to show this specimen 

 to Chester Dewey, who waved him away, it being an unsuitable 

 time. This incident illustrates his remarkable fearlessness in search 

 of information and material, in striking contrast to his singular 

 modesty and timidity in personal relations. 



Ward was born March 9, 1834, and died by automobile accident 

 in Buffalo, July 4, 1906. The biographical facts concerning him 

 and his family may be found in editions of "Who's Who in 

 America" previous to 1907. 



The life and work of this remarkable man has been so felicitously 

 told by one of his former assistants, William T. Hornaday, that 

 extended extracts from his writing will form the larger part of 

 this memoir. 



THE KING OF MUSEUM BUILDERS 



(By W. T. Hornaday in The Commercial Travellers Home Magazine of 



February, 1896.) 



"The king of museum-builders is an American ; and the greatest scientific 

 emporium in the world is at beautiful Rochester, fairly in the shadow of her 

 University. As patriotic Americans we have good reason to be proud of 



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