THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY IN 



CAMBRIDGE. 



"[This pamphlet was chiefly prepared last summer while Professor Agassiz was ill 

 and absent from Cambridge. Though he has been consulted about certain statements 

 therein contained, he has had no direct concern in writing it. It is proper to say this, 

 inasmuch as what may come as a very timely statement from friends of the Museum 

 would from its personal character be wholly unbecoming from its Director.] 



In the year 1847 the late Hon. Abbott Lawrence gave fifty thou- 

 sand dollars to Harvard University for the purpose of establishing 



THE LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL. 



At that time Mr. Lawrence asked Professor Agassiz if he would 

 accept a professorship in the new School, adding that his favorable 

 answer would be an additional inducement for him to make the endow- 

 ment. Professor Agassiz accepted the offer, and was soon afterwards 

 appointed Lawrence Professor of Zoology and Geology in the Scien- 

 tific School of Harvard University. He found, on entering upon his 

 duties, that there were no collections in Cambridge with which to 

 illustrate lectures upon Geology and Zoology, and that no provision 

 had been made to obtain such collections by purchase or otherwise. 

 He was, therefore, obliged to make them at his own expense, which 

 he did until they had outgrown his means and individual powers. In 

 1852, when the Professor had already extensive collections, stored 

 partly in his own house, partly in the cellar of Harvard Hall, and 

 partly in a shanty on the Brighton road, the late Mr. Samuel, Eliot, 

 who was then Treasurer of Harvard University, raised by private 

 subscription the sum of twelve thousand dollars to purchase these col- 

 lections and to provide for their arrangement. Professor Agassiz, 

 however, continued to spend all that he could spare of his time and his 

 earnings to increase the collections, until, in 1858, they had outgrown 

 the wants of the College and the scientific students, and a movement 

 was made to build up and organize the Museum, as it now is, as an 

 independent institution. In 1858 Mr. Francis C. Gray, of Boston, . 

 died, leaving a bequest of fifty thousand dollars for the purpose of 

 establishing and maintaining a 



