10 



FIFTY YEARS OF MUSEUM WORK 



Establishment which was to be my abiding place for the next eleven 

 years. 



Ward's Natural Science Establishment was then fairly started on the 

 second stage in its career, the first having terminated when the building 

 erected in the rear of Rochester University was destroyed by fire. 



At the time of my arrival there were but three buildings, "Cosmos 

 Hall," used for taxidermy and skeleton work, a casting shop, and com- 

 bined paint shop, carpenter shop and storage. 



From time to time a building or a shed was added until there was a 

 little hamlet of about fifteen buildings and sheds, and the working force 

 was increased from five to as many as twenty-two. It was a little com- 

 munity in itself, a polyglot community, including American, French, 

 German and Italian employees, each of whom was an expert in some 

 branch of preparatory or mechanical work, such as taxidermy, 

 osteology, plaster work, carpentry or blacksmithing. The establish- 

 ment adjoined an orchard whose trees from time to time were drawn on to 

 furnish branches for all sorts of arboreal animals from all parts of the 

 world and a goodly share of them are still doing duty in the Primates 

 Hall of the American Museum of Natural History. 



Eleven years at "Ward's" furnished excellent training — or rather 

 offered opportunities for training — for work in a large museum. I say 

 offered, because had the opportunities not been embraced, they would 

 have availed nothing, a point that some of our younger men fail to 

 appreciate. But, due to a liking for mechanical work, I spent many an 

 evening in mastering the mounting of crustaceans, small birds, and other 

 branches of preparatory work; such practical matters as making boxes 

 and packing all sorts of objects— from elephants to humming-birds, 

 plaster casts and skeletons — came to me as part of the regular day's 

 work. 



To paraphrase Clare Briggs, those were the days of real work, days 

 of nine or ten hours and even more, commencing at seven, winter or 

 summer, and ending at five or six. All the time after that was ours to 

 play or work as we chose. There were no holidays, no sick leave; we 

 were paid for every hour we worked and no more! We were not paid to 

 learn how to do things; we learned on our own time and by our own 

 efforts and if we wished to try any experiments in new methods of 

 \ work, we tried them at our own expense. 



It is perhaps owing to the years of work at Ward's that I cannot help 

 feeling a certain intolerance for the highly specialized preparators of 

 today. They seem so limited in the things they can do, so helpless 



