HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



Constitution. The Trustees at once, on motion of Charles A. Dana, at the same 



meeting in which the Act of Incorporation was accepted, appointed 

 a committee of three to draft a constitution. This committee was 

 composed of Messrs. Charles A. Dana, Theodore Roosevelt, and Joseph 

 H. Choate. 



The Constitution of The American Museum of Natural History was 

 carefully framed and was adopted May 4, 1869, precisely as originally 

 drafted by Mr. Choate. It was a document embodying fundamentally 

 the aim of the founders of the Museum to restrain and limit all gov- 

 ernment of the Museum within the body of Trustees. This design 

 appears throughout the document, and its wisdom has been amply 

 illustrated in the whole subsequent history of the institution. The 

 Constitution was a simple and adequate fabric. It was purely regu- 

 lative, and its provisions have met the requirements of nearly forty 

 years. 



Subscriptions. Meanwhile the financial outlook was unexpectedly promising, and 

 the response to solicitation generous. The personal prestige repre- 

 sented in its Trustees, their own pledges and the quick appreciation 

 of the educational purposes of the Museum, established at once a basis 

 of appeal that was irresistible. By November of the first year (1869) 

 of the Museum's corporate existence $44,500 had been subscribed. 



Collections. Several large collections had been offered and negotiations were 



opened for their purchase. The Trustees finally acquired the col- 

 lection of American birds of the ornithologist, D. G. Elliot, consisting 

 of about 2,500 specimens; the important collections of Prince Maxi- 

 millian of Neuwied on the Rhine above Bonn, comprising 4,000 

 mounted birds, 600 mounted animals, and about 2,000 fishes and 

 reptiles mounted and in alcohol, and the principal parts of the Ver- 

 reaux and Vedray collections — the former embracing 2,800 mounted 

 birds, 220 mounted animals and 4,000 mounted skeletons of mammals, 

 birds, reptiles, and fishes, and the latter, 250 specimens of mounted 

 mammals and birds of Siberia. These four collections formed the 

 nucleus about which the Museum has grown. 



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