AMERICAN MUSEUMS 



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direction, and how a museum should be constructed and 

 arranged so as to combine the maximum of utility with 

 economy of space and of money, will be best shown by an 

 account of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Harvard. 



Origin of the Harvard Museum. 



This museum originated in 1858, by a bequest of fifty 

 thousand dollars from Mr. Francis C. Gray of Boston to 



FlG. 1. MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



Harvard University, for the purpose of establishing a 

 museum of comparative zoology ; while the collections it 

 contains were begun by the late Dr. Louis Agassiz, who had 

 been for many years professor of zoology and geology. 

 Owing to the exertions and influence of Professor Agassiz, 

 the legislature of Massachusetts was induced to make a 

 grant of one hundred thousand dollars, while over seventy 

 thousand dollars were subscribed by citizens of Boston 

 "for the purpose of erecting a fire-proof building in 



the expense of altering which would be so great that it will probably 

 be long before it is attempted. The building itself, though fine archi- 

 tecturally, is quite unsuited for such an educational museum as that 

 described in the following pages. 



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