HISTORICAL 



The Museum of the College of Charleston cele- 

 brates in 1901 its fiftieth anniversary, having been 

 formally opened to the public in November, 1851. 

 Its beginning really dates much further back, as the 

 nucleus of the present Museum had previously ex- 

 isted in the form of the collections of the old Liter- 

 ary and Philosophical Society. In the last part of 

 the first half of the nineteenth century these had been 

 deposited in the Medical College They consisted 

 mainly of minerals, and a few birds and quadrupeds, 

 the latter in too poor a condition to be .preserved. 

 Some of the specimens in the Museum bear dates as 

 early as 1S27. Charleston had long been the center 

 of a coterie of nature Livers, many of whom had 

 rendered distinguished service to the cause of science. 

 Such names as Elliott, Holbrook, Audubon | Bach- 

 man, and a score of others lent a luster to the culture of 

 Charleston society at that day. Then came Louis 

 Agassiz who focused the interest in natural history into 

 a museum of natural history, the Charleston Museum. 

 Rooms were appropriated at the College, and in July, 

 1850, the remains of the old ik Mnseumof Charleston" 

 were removed from the Medical College to their new 



