THE BOARDMAN COLLECTION 99 



careful thought. He wanted it preserved in its entirety 

 and kept in some place where it would serve the cause of 

 science and be readily accessible to students of natural 

 history. Hence the idea of its disposition excepting as a 

 whole and to be in the custody of some public institution 

 could not for a moment be thought of. It had been men- 

 tioned in some of the public journals that it was to go to 

 Bowdoin College, where three of his sons had grad- 

 uated and an institution which he loved. It is believed, 

 however, that his first plan was for it to be kept in 

 Calais. To be sure Calais was but a small city and was 

 in no sense an educational or scientific centre ; but its 

 people were intelligent, many were wealthy and all held 

 Mr. Boardman in the highest esteem. The town had long 

 been his home, he had been successful in business there 

 and it was in the St. Croix valley where the larger part 

 of the collection had been made. Next to Calais, Mr. 

 Boardman no doubt hoped that it might go to some 

 institution in the Province of New Brunswick. 



During the summer of 1882, while Mr. Boardman was 

 in Minneapolis, an effort was made by the Portland 

 Society of Natural History to obtain his collection as it 

 had come to the knowledge of the society that Mr. Board- 

 man might make his future home in the west. On April 

 14, 1882, Mr. N. Clifford Brown, curator of ornithology 

 of that society addressed a letter to Mr. Boardman say- 

 ing : 



Our Society has recently learned of your intended removal 

 from Calais and the consequent probability that your well-known 

 superb collection of Maine birds may be obtained by purchase. 

 I hardly need say that we would greatly like to see this collection 

 in our own cabinets. You will doubtless agree that no more 



