NATURE-STUDY IN A MUSEUM 



By DELIA ISABEL GRIFFIN 

 Director of The Fairbanks Museum, St. Johnsbury, Vt. 



/'What is it?" The demand was abrupt, the outstretched 

 hands were very grimy, but the faces were filled with eagerness. 

 A half-dozen small boys stood in the director's office and proudly 

 presented their prize — a large caterpillar. Small heed they paid 

 to a committee of ladies, just out from their session in the class- 

 room, or to the Distinguished Visitor who paused by the door to 

 view the proceedings. The boys were entirely at home, — they 

 knew that the Museum and its contents belonged to them. 

 and while committees might use it, or visitors wander over it, 

 they, the children, were the true owners for whose enjoyment it 

 was built, and for whose benefit it was administered. 



As a lad of eleven years Franklin Fairbanks began his first collection of natural 



history specimens; at sixtv he dedicated this splendid Museum 



to the children of his city. 



The reason for their confidence is not far to seek — it is found 

 in the spirit of the man who built and endowed the Museum. 

 Col. Franklin Fairbanks was a lad of eleven years when he first 

 began his collection of natural history objects. He was a man 

 of sixty, when, that collection having grown to remarkable 

 dimensions, he erected the Fairbanks Museum of Natural Science. 

 At the laying of the corner-stone, he said to the young people. 

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