34 



AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



exhibition halls. There was not even a nucleus of a study collection. The 

 collection of birds numbered about 10,000 mounted skins and several 

 hundred mounted skeletons, all on exhibition, and about 3000 unmounted 

 skins, forming the beginning of a study collection. 



The exhibition collections were rich and varied, the specimens having 

 been selected with excellent discrimination, mainly by the late Dr. D. G. 

 Elliot, and included the famous Maximilian collection of mammals and 

 birds. The exhibition collections of this department thus compared 

 favorably with the best in this country. The North American collection 

 of birds was essentially complete, nearly every procurable species being 

 represented, and the specimens were all correctly determined and neatly 

 labeled. 1 But no part of either collection had been catalogued, except the 

 European birds, which had recently been carefully registered by Dr. Edgar 

 A. Mearns. In the case of the exotic species, of both mammals and birds, 

 the labels bore the names under which they were originally purchased, and 

 hence, while in most cases correctly identified, the technical nomenclature 

 was antiquated. 



The first task was therefore to catalogue the collections, thus securing a 

 permanent record of their history. 2 Fortunately, the original labels had 

 in most cases been preserved by pasting or tacking them to the bottom of 

 the stands. The next step was to renew the labels, in a uniform style, 

 giving the currently accepted technical names of the specimens, with their 

 localities, in conspicuous type. 



At the end of the first year the mammals had been catalogued and 

 relabeled. At the end of the third year most of the birds had been cata- 

 logued and provided in large part with new labels. 



In the curator's first annual report, 3 on the condition and extent of the 

 collections, the importance of fine exhibition collections was not only fully 

 recognized, but the formation of adequate study collections, to serve as the 

 basis for scientific research, was strenuously insisted upon in order to bring 

 the department to a proper standard of efficiency. As often as oppor- 

 tunity arose for securing such material, urgent appeals were made to the 



1 The determination was made by Robert Ridgway of the U. S. National Museum shortly before 

 the collection came under my care. 



2 "The museum assistant in charge of a special department must naturally, if the purpose for 

 which large collections are brought together is carried out, spend the greater part of his time in pre- 

 paring them for the specialist who is at some future time to avail himself of the treasures brought 

 together for his benefit. There is, therefore, the same danger that an eminent specialist, after his 

 appointment to the curatorship of a great museum, will find his museum duties so arduous as to prevent 

 him, as his colleague in the professional chair has been prevented, by official work, from doing original 

 work." — A. Agassiz, in the Ann. Report of the Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Harvard College for 1883-84, p. 7. 



3 Annual Report of the Trustees for the year 1885 (1886), pp. 9-12. 



