HISTORICAL NOTE. 



The American Museum of Natural History dates its official 

 history from April 6, 1869, when the State Legislature at Albany 

 passed an act creating "a body corporate, by the name of 'The 

 American Museum of Natural History,' to be located in the city of 

 New York, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said 

 city a Museum and Library of Natural History; of encouraging and 

 developing the study of Natural Science; of advancing the general 

 knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular 

 instruction and recreation." This legislation was the outgrowth of 

 an agitation which extended over several years and which finally 

 culminated through the opportunity presented the preceding year 

 (1868) of purchasing the Ehiot collection of North American birds 

 and the Maximilian and Verreaux collections of birds and mammals. 

 Among other fundamental collections of the Museum may be men- 

 tioned those in entomology presented by Baron R. Osten-Sacken and 

 Mr. Coleman T. Robinson. 



The first home of the Museum was in the Arsenal building in 

 Central Park near Sixty-fourth Street, but the building was old and 

 entirely unsuited to the purposes of a great museum and steps were 

 taken at once looking to the erection by the city of a fireproof struc- 

 ture, expressly for the housing and proper exhibition of the collec- 

 tions. That part of Central Park known as Manhattan Square was 

 set apart by statute for the accommodation of the building and on 

 June 2, 1874, President Grant laid the corner-stone of the first section 

 of the great structure which is eventually to occupy the whole of the 

 eighteen-acre plot bounded by Central Park West, West Seventy- 

 seventh Street, Columbus Avenue and West Eighty-first Street. 

 Three years later this wing was opened to the public. 



The first president of the institution was Mr. John David Wolfe. 

 His term of office was short, 1869-187 1, being terminated by his 

 death only a few months after the opening of the exhibition halls 

 in the old Arsenal building. Mr. Wolfe was succeeded by Mr. Robert 

 L. Stuart, who held the presidency from 1871 to 1881, when failing 

 health compehed him to resign. Two events signalized this period: 

 the occupancy of the first section of the building in Manhattan Square, 

 and the purchase of the James Hall Collection of Geology and Palseon- 

 tology. The presidency of Mr. Morris K. Jesup began in 1881 and 



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