On May 16, 1874, Mr. Choate was appointed a 
Committee of One to prepare the address for the 
Trustees to be read by the President of the Board 
of Trustees, in which he gave a compact and lumi- 
nous résumé of the early history of the Museum: 
“In this view it may not be unbecoming for the Trustees briefly to 
relate the course of events which have brought this undertaking to its 
present advancement, and to declare the purposes which have actuated 
them in the efforts they have made to establish, on a permanent founda- 
tion, a Museum which, as they hope, will be worthy of recognition as a 
National Institution. 
“Tt had long been a subject of regret to many citizens interested in the 
cause of education and culture, that this great city, the most prominent 
seat of American civilization, should remain entirely destitute of any 
adequate means for the study of Natural History, while all the other 
principal branches of science and knowledge found within it their 
professors and their colleges, which invited students from all parts of 
the land, and furnished them with suitable facilities for acquiring the 
special education which they sought. It was also considered that a de- 
partment of knowledge which has in recent years assumed so large a 
share of attention and so marked a place in every scheme of Liberal 
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