258 
Dr. G. Brown Goode's Paper. 
[502 
seventeenth century. The first scientific museum actually 
founded was that begun at Oxford in 1667, by Elias Ash- 
mole, still known as the Ashmolean Museum, composed 
chiefly of natural-history specimens, collected by the botan- 
ists Tradescant, father and son, inVirginia, and in the north of 
Africa. Soon after, in 1753, the British Museum was 
established by act of Parliament, inspired by the will of Sir 
Hans Sloane, who, dying in 1749, left to the nation his 
invaluble collection of books, manuscripts, and curiosities.' 
Many of the great national museums of Europe had 
their origin in the private collections of monarchs. France 
claims the honor of having been the first to change a 
royal into a national museum, when, in 1789, the Louvre 
came into the possession of a republican government. It 
is very clear, however, that democratic England, by its 
action in 1753, stands several decades in advance, — its act, 
moreover, being one of deliberate founding rather than a 
species of conquest. 
The first chapter in the history of American museums is 
short. In colonial days there were none. In the early 
years of the Republic, the establishment of such institu- 
^ The collections of Sloane, who was one of the early scientific explorers of 
America, were like those of the Tradescant’s, contained many New-World 
specimens, and the British Museum as well as the Ashmolean was built around 
a nucleus of American material. Indeed, we cannnot doubt that interest in 
American exploration had largely to do with the development of natural history 
museums. 
In those days all Europe was anxious to hear of the wonders of the new-found 
continent, and to see the strange objects which explorers might be able to bring 
back with them, and monarchs sought eagerly to secure novelties in the shape 
of animals and plants. 
Columbus was charged by Queen Isabella to collect birds, and it is recorded 
that he took back to Spain the skins of several kinds of animals. Even to this 
day may be seen, in the old collegiate church in Siena, a votive offering, placed 
there nearly four centuries ago by the discoverer of America. It consists of the 
armor worn by him when he first stepped upon the soil of the New World, 
and the rostrum of a swordfish killed on the American coast. 
The state papers of Great Britain contain many entries of interest in this 
connection. King James I. was an enthusiastic collector. December 15, i6og, 
Lord Southampton wrote to Lord Salisbury that he had told the King about 
Virginia squirrels brought into England, which were said to fly. The King 
