HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE INSTITUTE. PIERS. Ixxix 



a museum being now assured, the Nova Scotia Commission 

 purchased natural history collections with the understanding 

 that they were to be brought back from Paris and deposited 

 in the proposed museum. How, writing in January, 1867, 

 says that a space, 70 by 30 feet, had been set apart for a 

 provincial museum in the province building (post office) 

 then being built. 



The Provincial Museum was finally founded in October, 

 1868, when Honeyman was authorized by the government to 

 take possession of the room, where the Halifax Mechanics' 

 Institute museum (thirty-seven years after its formation) was 

 formally transferred by its sole surviving trustee, James 

 Forman, to the Nova Scotian government and placed in the 

 large room prepared for it in the post-office building. These 

 specimens were incorporated with those which had been at 

 the Paris Exhibition and which had been returned after its 

 close on 3rd November, 1867. The latter included How's 

 minerals and herbarium, Downs's birds, and Barnes's carboni- 

 ferous fossils. The late Dr. Honeyman was appointed curator 

 and remained so until his death on 17th October, 1889, and 

 the extent of the then collection was largely the result of his 

 zeal. It should be mentioned that to the Hon. William 

 Garvie was due much credit for lending his support to the 

 institution on its formation. 



For thirty-one years the museum was of a general charac- 

 ter, and after Honeyman's death remained in statu quo, but 

 in 1899 the government at the strong solicitation of the 

 Institute of Science, decided to give it more attention and 

 wisely determined to cut it down to a representation of 

 Nova Scotian products only, placing the foreign specimens in 

 storage. In October, 1899, arrangements were begun to 

 remove the collections to the Burns and Murray building, 

 where they soon outgrew their quarters, and in October, 1910, 

 they were finally removed to the Technical College. 



