THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM MOVEMENT 
IN ST. LOUIS.* 
Aveustus G. Ponimay. 
It is a difficult matter to speak on the same topic time 
and time again without exhausting the possibilities in the 
presentation. It occurs to me, however, that certain 
aspects of the proposition of the establishment of a 
Natural History Museum may be profitably analyzed. 
I submit my own ideas on this subject for what- 
ever they are worth, and hope they merit a rather 
free discussion. It has been maintained that variety 
is the spice of life, and if this be true, variety is what 
we are after because the conspicuous outstanding 
feature in the Natural History Museum Movement in 
St. Louis is its lack of movement. I have indicated in a 
previous address that we possess the chrysalis of a 
museum which is ready to break from its too prolonged 
hibernating period to emerge as a beautiful, competent, 
active organism if only proper conditions may be brought 
about. Let us depart from the accepted rules and regula- 
tions of a paper of this kind and frankly ask ourselves a 
few questions. What is wrong with the environmental 
conditions, that an organization dedicated to an estab- 
lished and valuable cultural quantity, meets with nothing 
but indifference and resistance? What is wrong with a 
Natural History Museum that it is not acceptable to the 
people in general? What is the matter with us, the mem- 
bers and friends of this movement, that individually and 
collectively, we can do no more than maintain our 
chrysalis in its dormant stage? The time has come for 
*An address delivered before the Museum Section of the Academy of 
Science on October 17, 1923. (47) 
