Aucu'ST 2, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



175 



torical treasures increased and expanded, 

 and led a migratory life of more than 50 

 years, in which it wandered successively 

 from the old City Hall, in Wall Street, to 

 the Government House, in Bowling Green, 

 to the IS". Y. Institution, to the Rerasen 

 Building, on Broadway, to the Stuyvesant 

 Institute, to the jST. Y. University, until 

 finally, in 1857, they rested permanently in 

 the present home of the society at Eleventh 

 Street and Second Avenue (History of IST. 

 Y. City, Benson J. Lossing). This so- 

 ciety's collections assumed at this latter 

 date the character of a museum in a popu- 

 lar sense, for at this time it secured the pos- 

 session of Dr. Abbott's collection of Egyp- 

 tian antiquities. 



As early as 1854 Dr. Abbott's collection 

 of Egyptian antiquities was brought to this 

 country by its distinguished owner and an 

 effort made to secure for it an appropriate 

 home in America, Dr. Abbott, during a 

 residence of more than twenty j^ears in 

 Egypt, where he had served as a physician 

 in the array of Mehemet Ali during the 

 Syrian war, had spared no pains and appar- 

 ently little expense in the accumulation of 

 a museum of Egyptian antiquities. The 

 reception of his project was disappointing 

 and hardly creditable to ISTew York, where 

 the collection it was expected would re- 

 ceive a proper reception. It did not. how- 

 ever, undergo the misfortune of being lost 

 to the city. Several friends of Dr. Abbott 

 and many gentlemen of influence and 

 means, amongst whom was Peter Cooper, 

 secured for it at least temporary security 

 and it was placed in an apartment in the 

 then New Institution, now the Cooper 

 Union Hall, in Astor Place. The amount 

 required was $60,000. The editor of Har- 

 per''s Magazine urged its purchase on the 

 grounds that it ' would be the nucleus of 

 a generous and extensive historical, scien- 

 tific and artistic museum, which would give 

 New York an elevated rank as a real, and 



not a pretended and assumed, metropolis 

 among the great cities of the world.' Such 

 opinions, prevalent in the prints of the time, 

 show how widely emphasized was the need 

 of a great museum for the citj\ The His- 

 torical Society subsequently became the 

 possessor of an immense art collection, 

 numbering 1,000 examples of paintings and 

 sculpture. 



The project of a permanent crystal palaca 

 is familiar perhaps to the older men of our 

 day, and the history of that elusive scheme,, 

 from the day when it opened as a World's 

 Fair to its extraordinary half-ludicrous 

 climax as a stock company, and a faint re- 

 flex of Sydenham Palace, under Barnum's 

 direction, a well-remembered chapter in the 

 events of half a century ago. In May, 

 1853, the approaching completion of the. 

 Crystal Palace was hailed by the New York 

 public and by the large expectant popula.- 

 tion of its suburbs with delight and pridev 

 It was at first a World's Fair, and in the 

 sketches of the time we meet expressions of 

 interest in which are mingled quite indis- 

 criminately delight over its completion, and 

 pleasure at the prospect of the Franconi 

 hippodrome and a stupendous tower for 

 panoramic views. The Crystal Palace was 

 a wonderfully attractive building. It was 

 modeled after the Crystal Palace of London, 

 but was a really more admirable architec- 

 tural work. It occupied the ground now 

 known as Brj^ant Park, and covered five 

 acres of ground. Its roof was supported on 

 iron columns and the spaces between them 

 were closed in by glass. It was a marvel- 

 ous creation of Moorish and B3^zantine com- 

 position. The annual fairs of the American 

 Institute were held here, and it was per- 

 haps the first seriously and generously con- 

 ceived effort at the work and mission of a 

 museum. It was known as the New York's 

 Industrial Exhibition, and while it largely 

 partook of the ephemeral bizarre and com- 

 mercial character of a fair, it enlarged the 



