12 A.NNUAL REPORT OF THE 



difficulties, due to the lack of rooms and of means, together with 

 the accumulation of the immense collections which in 1873 over- 

 flowed the building from roof to basement, prevented Professor 

 Agassiz from a full realization of his plans. 



I low well these plans have been carried out by Mr. Agassiz and 

 with what tenacity of purpose he adhered to them often at a sacri- 

 fice of personal interest, the Museum is the best witness. 



The full extent of Mr. Agassiz's work for the Museum and of his 

 great gifts to its collections will be clearly shown in a historical 

 sketch of the Museum now in course of preparation. 



Mr. Agassiz advocated at an early date a distinct field for the 

 work of a University Museum; he claimed that its province 

 should in no way compete with that of national, state, or muni- 

 cipal establishments, but that the maintenance of large collections 

 by such a Museum, supplemented first by a Zoological Station 

 controlled by the Museum, and secondly by explorations con- 

 ducted under the direction of the Museum, was vital for the 

 scientific progress and usefulness of the Museum. 



Throughout his life Mr. Agassiz promoted these aims. In some 

 of its departments the Museum of Comparative Zoology offers 

 unsurpassed facilities for research; the resources of his Newport 

 laboratory, together with opportunities for work at other labora- 

 tories, he rendered available for many years, while his furtherance 

 of exploration and the publication of the scientific results have 

 brought to the Museum and to the University their greatest dis- 

 tinction. 



Equally pronounced was the policy adopted by Mr. Agassiz 

 in regard to the display of specimens exhibited to the public. By 

 the practice in vogue in most museums in 1875, large numbers of 

 specimens, many of them merely duplicates, were arranged in 

 single crowded series. Mr. Agassiz limited his general collection 

 to selected typical forms and followed his father's plan of showing 

 fossils, recent forms, and skeletons together. 



In his Report for 1875 Mr. Agassiz wrote: — "The great defect 

 of museums in general is the immense number of articles exhibited, 

 compared with the small space taken to explain what is shown.* * * 

 The need of general labels, and a small number of specimens 

 properly selected to illustrate the labels, would go far towards 

 making a museum intelligible," and he thus maintained an im- 



