After a short stay as a member of the medical department of 
an 
Kentucky, he returned to 
Cincinnati, where, except for brief periods 
for the rest of his life. 
During a second visit to Philadelphia in 1815, 
been greatly impressed with the museums, colleges, medical 
schools, and other cultural inRtitntir 
Drake 
and 
Quaker 
and 
town, should become the cultural center of the Ohio Valley. 
Drake wrote, in 1816, about Cincinnati in terms that would nee 
little change to describe the St. Louis of the 1830' s, when th 
Western Academy of Natural Sciences was founded. That is what 
be said: 
i Cincinnati continues to advance. This is so strik- 
ingly the case, that if you were here, you would perceiv 
i^>,Ti?4.^5^^®°* aspect, a great contrast with what it had 
exniDited six years ago. Two steamboats have been com- 
pleted at this place within the last eight months, and 
anH^^i WK ^® '^^^ °^ ^^^ stocks. The engines for them 
f^„„J : ""^^ machinery are made at an extensive iron 
loundry between our old house and the river. The town 
Mn!?" :^ ^ undergone great alterations. All the prin 
fpK J^^'f^ts will in a short time be paved. A horse 
tProL,? ?^ ^®^° ^"i^*' and greatly facilitates our ii 
wercourse with Newport and Covington. Our two old news- 
commenced 
and 
batln?^! ^^°'*°'"^«^ enterprise was not all; the citizens had de- 
a «;phn^i * ' subscription libraries, a college, a hospital 
atmo«nh °\"^**^cine, and a scientific periodical. In such an 
f eU ?h!r%! . ^''*^'"^^^ ^° ^at'^^al science bloomed, and Drake 
He h J r ^:''*^^'^a*i should have an institution devoted to it. 
thesf tMngs%«°^^^ *''' '"^ ^' Philadelphia which had all 
Museuf Si^J ?n^ J^i^''*^?: *^"^f°^^' organized the Western 
exhih?? ^ ^^^®' '* 8^^' rapidly and in two years had 
ural hi J"""" ^* Cincinnati College in which was displayed 
000 Rr?Qoo°^-^^''^^ "^ "philosophical apparatus'* valued at 
""• tjy 1823 the museum had 
33\:aSr2pedr%^*'K^''/^^g^^* ^°^««' ^^ Megalonyx bones, 
1.000 fossns' ? Snn^"*?^' ^^^ ^^^^^^' ^,000 invertebrates, 
3 125 mprilii ' 2'?^® minerals, 325 botanical specimens, 
aAtiquiu^^ n? *-*'^°^' ^50 Egyptian and 215 American 
scenerv inHK 7T^T^^^°scopical designs, views of American 
S^aS «S!;^l^c^^^' * tattooed hiad of a New Zealand 
arts kn^an^''* ^°° miscellaneous specimens of the fine 
*" IS and an elegant organ. 3 o 
an 
$4 
239 
