One of the most important additions of recent years has been the founding of the Barnum Museum of Natural History. In the spring of 1883, the writer suggested to the Honorable P. T. Barnum that as he had been all his life engaged in collecting rare objects in certain departments of natural history for the purpose alike of popular amusement and instruction, it would be most appropriate for him to leave behind him, as his monument, a natural history museum in connection with the College of which he was one of the original promoters and founders. The response was instantaneous. He directed me at once to procure plans and specifications of a building which would admit of indefinite extension, and submit to him an estimate of the cost. In accordance with the foregoing scheme, the present museum building has been erected; and a beginning has been made also in the endowment fund. The museum, which is only the central portion of what is intended to be a much larger building, is a structure of dignity and beauty. The first, or basement floor, which is almost wholly above ground, is occupied by the steam-engine and by the necessary laboratories and work-rooms. The second, or main floor has, besides a large lecture-room, a grand vestibule, containing a marble bust of the donor, by Thomas Ball. Here the larger and more important specimens of natural history now belonging to the College are deposited. Here also the skin of Jumbo and the skeleton of the white elephant are to find their ultimate resting-place. The third floor comprises a large exhibition hall, fifty feet wide by seventy feet long, with a gallery running completely around it. In addition to the important cabinet already belonging to the College, Mr. Barnum authorized Prof. Henry A. Ward to furnish a fine zoölogical collection. This collection comprising several hundred choice specimens, selected with special reference to purposes of instruction, has been received, mounted and set up in cases specially designed for the purpose.
The library has had, on the whole, a very satisfactory growth. Dr. Ballou's extraordinary love for books led him to bestow particular attention upon its formation. He was unremitting in his solicitation of gifts from friends and acquaintances and from publishers and booksellers. The interest awakened by him has never flagged. There are now in the possession of the College upwards of twenty thousand bound volumes, many of them rare and of great value, and eight or nine thousand pamphlets. The collection has entirely outgrown the quarters assigned to it, and needs a building specially adapted to its use. A gentleman of ample fortune has privately assured the president that such a building shall be supplied at an early day.