The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-03-08

The Museum OF Natural History.
The American Museum of Natural History
in Central Park has attained such an emil
nence among the cognate institutions OF this
country, and the purposes of its founders
are SO extensive and important, that it is
we'll the citizens of New York should have
their attention directed to its recent growth,
to the national character it is about to as
sumo and to the possibilities of its future
life.
During these two years the museum has
silently been gathering strength. charging
it's field of application, extending its in
struction to greater and greater numbers,
and slowly organizing plans which will
make it a national ornament and the ex-
ponent of scientific development and
thought throughout the United States.
The new museum, or rather that portion
which is about completed, will in few
months be entered, and its punishment,
which is OF unparalleled beauty and
adaptability, crowded with treasures of
natural science and chronological research,
will be opened to the public Of sightseers,
to students and societies for their free and
constant service.
In the old Arsenal in Central Park, of
cramped and inadequate accommodations,
half of it's great collections are concealed,
packed and stored away, unavailable for ex-
animation, while those on exhibition are
imperfectly seen, only partially classified
81 faI Dut in fho axv
building, whose halls are models of conven
fence and beauty, flooded with light through
immense windows and provided with the
most perfect cases ingenuity and expert
ence combined could produce, these pre-
cious stores will be exhibited in o manner
BETTING their rarity and loveliness.
Here. exposed up and down these spa
cious corridors, through plates of the finest
glass, the plumage and colors of birds will
be reflected with glory rivalling that OF
their native haunts; the shells Of southern
seas will CLEAN with their exquisite tints be-
meath the general radiance, as though they
lay in their limpid element, while one of
the most complete collections of American
palmontology yet gathered together will mi
nutely relate the rise and development of
life from the first dawn through its subse-
quent development in paleozoic eras, and
in part finish the story to modern times.
There, also, affected by the great modern
agitation over the origin of man, his past
history and his present relations, the mu-
scum will also dwell upon this prodigious
theme, and by means of a great quantity
and variety of material illustrate mans
primitive and modern condition. The his
tory of man is to cap the pyramid Of sci
ences which the museum expects to rear
within her walls.
The great cities of Europe have their un-
rivalled museums crowded with all that
modern exploration has exhumed in the past
or revealed in present time. They are mon
uments of indefatigable exertion, zeal and
enlightened effort. Through them science
speaks to audiences she would otherwise
never reach, and encourages her devotees
gathered together inspire. Now York city,
the metropolis Of America, before 1869 had
no such home of learning and the gentle
men who then inaugurated the present in
stitution expected that in time it would
rise to an eminence commensurate with the
importance of the city it represented. They
undertook to erect building devoted to the
classification and exhibition of the natural
objects of this and all countries. Their plan
was as broad as nature could make it. Such
m institution was to be schoolhouse OF
natural knowledge. 1t was free to all, and
all were expected to assist in it's growth
and completion. That plan has steadily
developed, its various details have become
more definite, and it itself even enlarged
beyond its original scope. The new museum
will comprise series of rooms devoted t.
the use and elucidation of science. Her,
will be collected together, as the institution
natures, libraries upon the subjects illus
trated by exhaustive cabinets in the halls
Each room will be assigned its appropriate
use; room for conchology, palmontology
ichthyology, &c.,, will here be found
where the students of these branches ma,
freely confer and study. The museum is t
be court OF appeal where vexed question
of identity and nomenclature are to be set
tied on the evidence of her cabinets and tn
authority of her Libraries.
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A Chair OF state.
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