HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



The spirit of Mr. Jesup's administration is, perhaps, best expressed 

 in his own language in one of his later reports (1884): 



"It would appear to be very desirable to place the Museum 

 on such a permanent basis of maintenance that the annual con- 

 tributions of the Trustees and Members could be appropriated 

 exclusively to the purchase of objects of science. Valuable 

 collections, which the Museum needs, are continually being 

 offered us for sale, but we are obliged to decline their pur- 

 chase for want of funds. 



"The great Museums of Europe are chiefly sustained by 

 public funds, through the force of an enlightened public 

 sentiment both as to their educational and economic value. 



"The value of what you have already accumulated in your 

 halls rises to a large figure commercially, but it is a difficult 

 task to estimate the money value of what belongs to science 

 and scientific institutions. To their value must be added 

 their ameliorating power, their educational force, and the 

 scope they afford the higher faculties of man to apprehend 

 the wonderful phenomena of Nature, and to master and 

 utilize her great forces. 



"To the multitude shut up in stone walls, to whom are 

 denied an acquaintance with the beauty of natural objects, or 

 the study of nature in its usual aspects and conditions, the 

 advantage of your Museum is, that it affords opportunity; and 

 out of a great number who look on vaguely and experience 

 only the healthful excitement of a natural curiosity, one here 

 and there may be found endowed with special aptitude and 

 tastes. Perhaps some child of genius, whose susceptibili- 

 ties and faculties once aroused and quickened, will repay 

 in the field of discovery and science, through the force of 

 some new law in its manifold applications, all your expendi- 

 ture a hundredfold. 



"Commercial values and purely scientific values meet 

 often on common ground; but their essential life belongs 

 to opposite poles. To some it appears necessary to vindicate 

 the employment of large amounts of public money in such 

 an institution as that which you control from the charge 

 of extravagance; their ideas of value appear to be limited to 



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