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 Elliot 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, 1869-1871, 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 compelled 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 Palzon- 
tology. The presidency of Mr. Morris K. Jesup began in 1881 and 
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