BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 5 



Among the first charter members besides those named, 

 were, Dr. C. W. Harvey, L. G. Sellstedt, O. H. Marshall, 

 Charles Caryl Coleman, Solomon G. Haven, Thomas Farnham, 

 Walter Clarke, David Gray, Ottomar Reinecke, Dr. James P. 

 White, Augustus B. Fitch, George P. Putnam, John Howcutt, 

 R. G. Snow, Eugene N. Robinson and the four young men 

 already mentioned as having belonged to the earlier ' 'Lyceum 

 of Natural Science". Within a year about one hundred names 

 were added to the local membership iucluding Henry A. Rich- 

 mond, Augustus R. Grote, William H. Glenny and many beside 

 who have proven steadfast friends to the Society. 



These were days of first beginnings and many discour- 

 agements, but those charter members had the enthusiasm of 

 youth and were not easily disheartened. The first lecturer was 

 Professor Benjamin Silliman of New Haven who came for the 

 evenings of February 19th, 20th and 21st, 1862. St. James' 

 Hall, successor to the old Eagle Theater, had been burned on 

 the 9th of January and presumably these lectures were given in 

 the rooms first occupied by the Society on Erie St. in the 

 building since used by Rogers Bowen and Locke and their 

 successors. An old diary tells us that notwithstanding the 

 hardest snow storm of the winter which raged on the first 

 evening, quite a number of ladies were present and on the 

 other evenings there was a larger and deeply interested au- 

 dience. 



About April 1, I862 other rooms were secured over the 

 New York and Erie Bank on West Seneca. Street near Pearl. 

 Here the Museum was fairly started in cases provided by 

 Coleman T. Robinson. Augustus R. Grote contributed 600 

 specimens of Coleoptera collected in the State of New York and 

 a like number of catalogued species of plants collected in the 

 Rocky Mountains by Elihu Hull and J. P. Harlan. 



Wm. W. Stewart was placed in charge of the Museum 

 which grew so rapidly that soon the Seneca Street quarters 

 were inadequate and more commodious rooms were taken in 

 the third floor of the Jewett Building on Main St. opposite St. 

 Paul's Church, where the collections might be better displayed. 



On the 23rd of January 1863, the society was incorporated 

 under the general Act of April 12, 1848 for the incorporation 

 of scientific and other societies, the certificate being signed by 

 Hon. George W. Clinton, Theodore Howland, Leon F. Harvey, 



