170 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 344. 



of shells in the American Museum, as his 

 library was the foundation of its present 



^W.^Kili-a'^'A -;. 



the L3'ceum with a possible reference to a 

 permanent home and a hall for its collec- 

 tions. Quoting from Professor Fair- 

 child's 'History of the New York 

 Academj^ of Sciences ' (p. 49) we learn 

 that "the circular letter explaining the 

 plan had affixed to it the names of the 

 active members of that time, which were 

 these : William A. Haines, Kobert L. 

 Stuart, George IST. Lawrence, J. Carson 

 Brevoort, H. D. A^an Nostraud, Chas. 

 A. Jay, Dr. John W. Greene, D. Jackson 

 Steward, Charles M. Wheatley, Temple 

 Prime, with Livingston Satterlee as 

 Chairman. " This effort was unsuccessful 

 and the disappointed hopes of its authors 

 were later revived and the cooperation of 

 tlie more influential embodied in the 

 creation of the American Museum of 

 Natural History. All expectation of se- 

 curing in the rehabilitation of the Ly- 

 ceum a permanent museum was de- 

 stroyed, when, on May 21, 1866, the Med- 

 ical College building, in which the collec- 

 tions of the Lyceum were placed, was 

 burned. The collections were not insured 

 and only its valuable library escaped de- 



Uuiversity Medical College, Fourteenth St. 



library, was one of the most enthusiastic and 

 fsedulous advocates of its interests while in 

 its financial necessities the Lyceum 

 leaned rather too heavily on his 

 generous sympathy. Amongst the 

 friends and officers of the New 

 York Lyceum from 1860 to 1869 

 were names afterwards identified 

 with the opening and even the later 

 years of the American Museum. 

 Amongst these were William A. 

 Haines, Eobert L. Stuart, George 

 M. Lawrence, J. Carson Brevoort, 

 D. Jackson Steward. These gentle- 

 men were in several instances them- 

 selves collectors and possessed 

 libraries and cabinets of command- 

 ing interest. They became inter- 

 ested in 1865 in a movement to secure struction. For years before this the Ly- 

 moneys for the furtherance of the object of ceum had been engaged in a despairing 



Stuyvesant Institute, University Medical College. 



