a 
FEBRUARY 15, 1884.] 
halls of. an armory, assigned by the city to the muse- 
um, proved to be too small. “Thereupon the trustees 
thought of having a home of its own for their collec- 
tions ; and to that end the city government not 
only gave Manhattan Square, an estate of eighteen 
acres and a quarter, in the immediate vicinity of 
Central Park, but also decreed the necessary means 
for the projected building. 
In June, 1874, the corner-stone was laid, in the 
presence of President Grant, the governor of the 
state, the mayor of the city, and a number of promi- 
nent persons from Boston and New Haven. Asearly 
as December, 1877, the large fire-proof building, con- 
sisting of nothing but stone and iron, was finished 
so far that it was possible to transfer the collections, 
and to make them accessible to the public. To-day 
the museum is already filled to such an extent, that 
the trustees ask for three hundred thousand dollars 
more, in order to put up an additional building of the 
same size. In regard to the excellent adaptation of 
the building to its purposes, and also in regard to the 
practical interior arrangement, the New-York muse- 
um deserves to be called a model institution. The 
exterior of the red-brick building is without any or- 
namentation. The entrance at the narrow side leads 
to the basement: the large staircase is opposite. 
Each floor contains, besides one single large hall of 
a hundred and seventy by sixty feet, only a few small 
laboratories near the stairs. Wide and high windows 
on both sides furnish plenty of light. Between them 
the walls have openings like loopholes, through which 
the interior of the cases, which are in a rectangu- 
lar position against the side-walls, get the necessary 
light. The wide, well-ventilated halls, provided with 
heating-apparatus and gas, make a grand impression. 
On all the floors the main cases are arranged in the 
same way, and are of the same size; so that it would 
be easy to move the contents of one hall into an- 
other. The rooms, as well as the cases, are well pro- 
tected against dust. The cases are made of iron; 
their doors, of a single pane of glass. The tasteful 
and appropriate furnishings correspond with the con- 
tents. In the basement there is a rather small col- 
lection of mammals. We donot see here those shabby 
skins, half-destroyed by moths, nor those ill-shaped, 
four-legged straw bags which disfigure somany mu- 
seums of older date. Every thing is new and clean; 
and some groups — as, for example, the family of 
orang-outangs, or the Ornithorhynchus, with its sur- 
roundings — may well be called pictures borrowed 
from nature. The collection of birds on the first floor 
deserves similar praise. The laymen will be pleased 
with the birds of paradise, the macaws, the parrots, 
and the humming-birds, which display here the beau- 
ty of their feathers. The hall of the first floor is 
thirty feet high, with a wide gallery, forming, so to 
speak, a floor for itself, with its own windows. Here 
we find a rich ethnographic and prehistoric collec- 
tion. American objects predominate; but there is 
no want of foreign material for comparison, and es- 
pecially one interested in the European stone period 
could find here very many valuable things. The next 
floor contains the geologico-paleontological and the 
SCIENCE. 
193 
mineralogical collection. The nucleus of this divis- 
ion is a collection bought for sixty-eight thousand 
dollars, from Prof. J. Hall in Albany, the Nestor of 
American geologists. The typical objects, as given 
in Hall’s voluminous work on the state of New York, 
are arranged here in a way that affords an excellent 
view of the whole; and I do not think that the enor- 
mous mass of paleozoic petrifactions of America is 
better exhibited in any other museum. On the high- 
est floor there is a library, a hall for public lectures, 
laboratories, and a number of rooms for various spe- 
cialists and their private collections. A freight- 
elevator runs from the cellar to the highest floor in 
an American museum, as a matter of course. 
If we consider what has been done in New York 
within less than fifteen years, we have, indeed, to 
admire the energy of the superintendent, Prof. A. S. 
Bickmore. He not only knew how to get some of the 
richest and most influential citizens interested in his 
work, but also formed, with the means at his disposal, 
an institution unrivalled in many respects. The 
American museum of natural history is open to the 
public daily; and, on an average, about fifteen thou- 
sand persons a week make use of this privilege. The 
city of New York pays to the museum annually 
fifteen thousand dollars. All the expenses above that 
are paid by subscription. Should the plan, as exhib- 
ited in the basement, be carried out, the museum 
wolud have twelve buildings of the size of the present, 
which, together with six connecting wings, would 
cover the whole of Manhattan Square. An enormous 
cupola would form the centre of the whole. Then 
New York would decidedly have the largest museum 
of natural history in the world. 
The museum of the state of New York, at Albany, 
is on a smaller scale. This institution has been 
founded by the celebrated geologist, J. Hall. During 
fifty years of investigation he has unearthed the 
geological and paleontological treasures of his state; 
and, besides a private collection, he has created a 
public museum, where the products of the state of 
New York are exhibited in a fine arrangement. In 
Germany we have only one local collection, the 
‘“Wiurttembergisches landes museum,’ at Stuttgart, 
which is ahead of the museum of the state of New 
York in regard to arrangement and completeness. 
For study and investigations, the capital of the 
state of New York, with its unpleasant political life, 
is not a very favorable place. The university towns 
of New Haven and Cambridge are far better homes 
for intellectual culture in North America. There is 
no better introduction into society than a diploma 
from Yale or Harvard. These universities are partly 
imitations of English colleges, partly of German 
institutions; and for decades there have been first- 
class learned men among their teachers. The scien- 
tific life of America is under the influence of these 
universities and these independent corporations are 
so popular that they receive considerable legacies 
nearly every year. The numerous handsome build- 
ings of Yale college at New Haven show the wealth 
of this institution. Among the simple dormitories 
and buildings for lecture-rooms, the museum of 
