REPORT. 
To THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE: — 
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, on the 13th of November, 1860, the 
first section of the Museum building was inaugurated. It may 
not be out of place to recapitulate the changes it has passed 
through, and to note the gradual transition of the Museum from 
a State institution to that of an independent department of 
Harvard College. 
It was most natural that Professor Agassiz, with his European 
ideas of government support for scientific establishments, should 
primarily have looked to his adopted State for aid in carrying 
ont his cherished plans. While no one was better fitted than 
he to interest a Legislature, and to obtain liberal appropriations 
even in the most critical times, yet he also recognized fully the 
value of the American method of private endowments, and 
from the outset the Museum owed its material existence to a 
happy combination of State aid with personal interest. In 
time, however, with the growth of the Museum, it became more 
and more difficult to hold together a special Board of Trustees. 
The intimate connection of the Museum with Harvard College 
suggested an easy remedy, and the duties hitherto performed by 
the Trustees were relegated to the already existing governing 
boards of the University. By this consolidation with Harvard 
College, the Museum, while it lost the immediate support of the 
State, gained the good will and interest of the College students, 
the class upon whom it must eventually depend for its main- 
tenance. To the graduates of Harvard interested in the study 
of nature the Museum must appeal for intellectual and mate- 
rial support. With the ever-increasing influence of the natural 
sciences, the field of the Museum becomes a large one, and men 
must be found who will devote themselves to its interests and 
keep it abreast of the requirements of a great University. 
