HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



North Pacific 

 Seal Group. 



and skulls of the white whale, collected by Commander Peary and 

 presented by the Peary Arctic Club. 



Two North Atlantic right whales, captured off Amagansett, Long 

 Island, were obtained by Mr. Roy Chapman Andrews and Mr. James 

 L. Clark in 1907. One of these whales was the largest specimen of 

 which there has been definite scientific record. The sum paid for 

 the two skeletons and a complete set of baleen was $3,278, also the 

 gift of Mr. Bowdoin. 



Eight specimens of the fur seal for a group illustrating a seal rookery 

 were presented to the department in 1908 by Mr. D. O. Mills. The 

 specimens were collected at the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. 



Among recent gifts of special interest are the following : 



The skins and skeletons of the rare Solenodon paradoxus, which 

 were obtained in Haiti by Mr. A. H. Verrill and presented in 1907 by 

 President Jesup; the small but valuable collection of mammals from 

 the border of Tibet, received in 1908 through the generosity of the 

 Honorable Mason Mitchell (the takin, mounted in 1909, was in this 

 collection) ; the group of Paradise birds, numbering 75 specimens and 

 containing 46 species, the gift of Mrs. Frank Sturgis. 



MAMMAL AND BIRD COLLECTIONS BY PURCHASE 



Ward 



Collection, 



$15,000. 



A number of important accessions to the department have been 

 purchased by the Museum. 



In 1882 two contracts were made with Professor H. A. Ward of 

 Rochester — one to supply mounted specimens of such mammals of 

 North America north of Mexico as were necessary to complete the 

 Museum's collections, not to exceed the value of $8,000 — the other 

 to procure for the Museum specimens of all the monkeys in the world. 

 In the first four years following the drawing up of these contracts a 

 large number of specimens was sent in, a few were delivered in 1888, 

 and the last received in 1892. The funds for the first contract were 

 provided by Mr. Jesup personally, and for the second, which amounted 

 to over $7,000, by Mr. Robert Colgate. 



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