The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-17
A YEARS GROWTH OF
IMPORTANT MUSEUM
A Harvard Institution That Has
Already Come to Rank
Very High.
SCIENTISTS OPINION
Valuable Additions and Important
Changes That Have Recently
Been Made.

HShed report OF the keeper of the Harvard
University Museum of Comparative FOOL
ogy, the great American museum, that the
English naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace,
declared some years ago to be far in adj
vance of any similar British institution
and probably superior to any European
one. ''either as regards the general public
the private student. or the specialist" has
acquired several gifts of unusual impor-
lance. Reading between the lines, moreover,
this rather dry appearing outline of single
years work presents an interesting pic
ture of the real purposes and value of an
important modern museum, for although
thousands of visitors pass yearly through
it's exhibition halls comparatively few
realize how much ceaseless activity is hid
den behind the doors that are not open to
the public.
Such a museum, doubtless, especially in
Cambridge with its never-ending process
sion of Harvard relations, appeals to
thousands of persons, first of all as place
where interesting objects are exhibited.
An English wag once said of the solemn
British Museum that it was chiefly valued
by Londoners as a good place to take the
children in rainy weather. But the actual
purpose of these great collections is much
more far-reaching and the work that goes
on day by day in various rooms to which
the public never penetrates and with col
lections which the public never sees, repre-
sents a contrast and widely diversified
study of nature
VALUABLE PUBLICATIONS.
Among the publications of the Agassiz
Museum, as the institution is usually
called in Cambridge, during the past year
one finds, for example, such diverse sub
jects as 1.-THE Coral Reefs of the Tropical
Pacific" by Prof. Alexander Agassiz;
Sharks Teeth and Caracean Bones" by
C. r. Eastman; 1.-The Heredity of Sex" by
w. e. Castle; Birds and Mammals from
Honduras" by Outram Bangs; "Rver Ter
races in England" by Prof, w. NJ. Davis;
Birds of the Cape Regions of Lower Cali
| fornia," by William Brewster, to say moth
| ing Of many other contributions in fields
Of study equally far apart and yet equally
necessary to the furtherance of the sum
| total of human knowledge. Among the adj
ditions to the museum itself one finds
| collection of recent and fossil insects that
is declared TO be one of the most important
| acquisitions that has come to the museum
in many years, representing as it does the
| life work Of Mr.. s. H. Scudder, one of the
a collection of relics brought back by DIR.
| T. A. Jaggar after his visit to the still
smoking ruins of st. Pierre; and collec-
| ton of upwards of 5000 skins of North
American and West Indian birds, which is
| one of the largest and most valuable coll
/ lectlonS which the bird department has
| ever received by gift. These large collec-
lions OF course represent simply frac-
1 ton of the total growth of the museum,
| and the report calls particular attention to
| the way in which it's various collections
| are constantly growing through the kind
| ness, on a larger or smaller scale, of stu
| dents and others who have become familiar
| with ii. great museum in other words
| grows outward in various directions, some
! times slowly, sometimes by leaps and
| bounds; and the past year at the Agassiz
| Museum has been very growing one that
| has fortunately been met by a recent en-
| largement of the big museum building it,
| self through the addition of new wing de-
voted entirely to the department of geol-
THE ST. PIERRE RELICS.
Although the report does not mention the
recent acquisitions in detail, there are some
that will undoubtedly attract more interest
from visitors than others that are more
scientifically important. The st. Pierre
relics, for example, will always have an
alRpst personal interest to whoever remem-
bers the terrible disaster that thrilled the
whole world less than two years ago. They
consist of some three hundred or more OBJ
| jects-knives, forks, spoons, coins. glass
ware, patters, plates and other bits of the
daily life of St. Pierre-selected for the
most part from the mass OF similar mater.
after the destruction of the city and stored
| for safe keeping in the government vaults
at Fort De France. From this larger col
| lection DR.. Jaggar, of the Harvard depart
| ment of geology, obtained permission to Sc
lect the objects now at Cambridge, and
their place In the museum illustrates a
it,f
| special characteristic securing of articles
not only for their geological, but for their
human interest, showing, as in this case,
the effect of various earth processes on the
| familiar aspects and interests of daily hui
man life. Among these relics is one of the
two American s. gold pieces picked up in
| the ruins, together with last edition of
Les Colonies" the local paper whose un-
lucky optimism did so much to keep the
| people from leaving the city. The paper,
| copies OF which are now rare, was not
| picked up in the ruins, but was given TO
DIR. Jaggar by French planter during his
scientific researches in the neighborhood of
| Mont Pelee.
Another exhibition of popular as well as
scientific interests will doubtless be the col
lection of Notwithstanding machinery,
| deep nets, trowels. dredges, etc.-used
| in the scientific investigation of the ocean.
| Much of the important deep-sea investiga-
| ton of the last quarter of a century has, in
| deed, been done by men of science connected
with the museum and among it's publica-
| tons of the past year one finds 49, 40 pages
| and 23S plates devoted to Professor Agas-
| siz's investigation in the tropical Pacific.
| Professor AgassiZ has himself recently sum-
married for the Royal Geographical Society
| of England the results of twenty-five years
of investigation Of coral islands. A third
| recent addition to the museum that will
| doubtless continue to attract considerable
| interest is the large model OF the city of
Boston, which many visitors will recall hav-
ing seen at the worlds fair and which the
| commonwealth of Massachusetts has since
deposited for safe keeping in the Harvard
museum.
POPULAR EXHIBITS.
Some of the most striking changes in the
museum during the year have occurred in
what are perhaps its most familiar exhibit
ton rooms-with the exception of the room
containing the altogether unique collection
of glass flowers which practically every one
who visits Cambridge sees and remembers
those rooms devoted TO the faunal exhibits
or. as the enthusiastic small boy might de-
scribe them, TO the stuffed animals. The
most important addition to this part of the
museum is a splendid specimen of the gil
raffe, surprisingly tall and imposing when
compared with the familiar long nacked
member of the travelling menagerie. and the
coming of the giraffe has been followed by
a Encouragement of the other larger ex-
hibits which are now grouped in single
large plate glass case which adds much to
the attractiveness of the main room as a
whole, and Will probably lead TO the in
stallation of similar central cases in other
adjacent exhibition halls.