D. C. Danielssen. 



33 



council sbould be appealed to, for a grant of £ 2700 for a 

 new building; the desired sum was not granted, but £ 450 

 were put aside for the purpose, and thus a beginning, though a 

 modest one, was made of the present museum. In the following 

 jears (always at Danielssen's suggestion) applications were made 

 to the Town council. Parliament and Savings Bank for money for 

 the new building, and although the authorities seldom granted the 

 whole demand, still the sum rose tolerably quickly, so that in 1860 

 the managers had £ 7875 at their disposal, besides a site, and a 

 pledge from the council to keep the building in repair. Later on 

 £ 900 were obtained by private collection ; and in 1862 the 

 Town council undertook the responsibility of obtaining the required 

 means for the completion of the building, in case the contri- 

 butions which had been granted ancl collectecl provecl insufficient. 

 And now the building work, a very great undertaking (accor- 

 ding to Bergen ideas in those days) was started, the architect 

 Nebelong of Copenhagen having furnishecl the designs. It had 

 I)een a hard struggle for Danielssen and the other managers, 

 especially for the former, who had had many a hard fight in order 

 to gain the grants from the Council and Parliament; but then the 

 result was highly satisfactory, for it was both a pretty 1 ) and suitable 

 building they were now able to rear, a building, which though it is 

 now almost 30 years old, is still quite modem, and which gave 

 more than sufficient space for the then existing collections of all 

 descriptions. 



The building was opened on the 4th of July 1864, with a speech 

 by Danielssen, who had from 1864, when "toldkasserer" Christie 

 retired, been chief director, besicles being chairman in the natural 

 history section. The collections were moved in, after the building 

 had first been used for the fishery exhibition of 1865, and thus, mainly 

 owing to Danielssen's untiring exertions, a locality was secured for 

 the museum, much grander than its founders had imagined possible. 

 The labour however was far from ended, especially with regard to 

 the natural history department. Antiquarian collections have the 

 great advantage that their objects are not injured by the lapse of 

 years, and as in this case the antiquities had been arranged by the 

 antiquarian Nicolaysen, that part of the museum was soon presen- 



3 ) Unfortunately it was necessary from financial considerations to make 

 some changes in Nebelong's designs, especially with regard to the windows, by 

 which the appearance of the building sustained a great loss. 



