Canada.—In connexion with the Université Laval in Quebec, the McGill University in Montreal, and the university of Toronto in Ontario, beginnings of significance have been made. The Peter Redpath Museum of McGill College contains important collections in all branches of natural history, more particularly botany. The provincial museum at Victoria, British Columbia, is growing in importance. A movement has been begun to establish at Ottawa a museum which shall in a sense be for the Dominion a national establishment.
France.—Paris abounds in institutions for the promotion of culture. In possession of many of the institutions of learning, such as the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines, the Institut National Agronomique, and the various learned societies, are collections of greater or less importance which must be consulted at times by specialists in the various sciences. The Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in the Jardin des Plantes is the most comprehensive and important collection of its kind in the French metropolis and while not as rich in types as the British Museum, nevertheless contains a vast assemblage classic specimens reflecting the labours of former generations French naturalists. Unfortunately, much of the best material, consisting of the types of species obtained by the naturalists of French voyages of exploration, have been too long exposed to the intense light which fills the great building and have become bleached and faded to a great degree. The zeal to popularize knowledge by the display of specimens has conflicted with the purpose to preserve the records of science, a fact which French naturalists themselves universally admit. As in England, so also in France, there are a number of virtuosi, who have amassed fine private collections. One of the very largest and finest of all the entomological collections of the world is that at Rennes, belonging to the brothers Oberthür, upon which they have expended princely sums. The Muséum des Sciences Naturelles of Lyons is in some respects an important institution.
Belgium.—Brussels has been called “a city of museums.” The Musée du Congo and the Musée Royal d’Histoire Naturelle du Belgique are the two most important institutions from the standpoint of the naturalist. The former is rich in ethnographic and zoological material brought from the Congo Free State, and the latter contains very important paleontological collections.
Holland.—The zoological museum of the Koninklijk Zoologisch Genootschap, affiliated with the university at Amsterdam, is well known. The royal museums connected with the university of Leiden are centres of much scientific activity.
Denmark.—The National Museum at Copenhagen is particularly rich in Scandinavian and Danish antiquities.
Sweden.—In Stockholm, the capital, the Nordiska Museet is devoted to Scandinavian ethnology, and the Naturhistoriska Riks-Museum is rich in paleontological, botanical and archaeological collections. Great scientific treasures are also contained in the museums connected with the university of Upsala.
Norway.—Classic collections especially interesting to the student of marine zoology are contained in the university of Christiania.
Germany.—Germany is rich in museums, some of which are of very great importance. The Museum für Naturkunde, the ethnographical museum, the anthropological museum, the mineralogical museum and the agricultural museum in Berlin are noble institutions, the first mentioned being particularly rich in classical collections. Hamburg boasts an excellent natural history museum and ethnographical museum, the Museum Godeffroy and the Museum Umlauff. There are a number of important private collections in Hamburg. The municipal museum in Bremen is important from the standpoint of the naturalist and ethnologist. The Roemer Museum at Hildesheim is one of the best provincial museums in Germany. Dresden even more justly than Brussels may be called “a city of museums,” and the mineralogical, archaeological, zoological and anthropological museums are exceedingly important from the standpoint of the naturalist. Here also in private hands is the greatest collection of palaearctic lepidoptera in Europe, belonging to the heirs of Dr Otto Staudinger. The ethnographical museum at Leipzig is rich in collections brought together from South and Central America. The natural history museum, the anatomical museum and the ethnographical museum in Munich are important institutions, the first mentioned being particularly rich in paleontological treasures. The natural history museum of Stuttgart is likewise noted for its important paleontological collections. The Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft museum at Frankfort-on-the-Main contains a very important collection of ethnographical, zoological and botanical material. The museum of the university at Bonn, and more particularly the anatomical museum, are noteworthy. In connexion with almost all the German universities and in almost all the larger towns and cities are to be found museums, in many of which there are important assemblages illustrating not only the natural history of the immediate neighbourhood, but in a multitude of cases containing important material collected in foreign lands. One of the most interesting of the smaller museums lately established is that at Lübeck, a model in its way for a provincial museum.
Austro-Hungary.—The Imperial Natural History Museum in Vienna is one of the noblest institutions of its kind in Europe, and possesses one of the finest mineralogical collections in the world. It is rich also in botanical and conchological collections. There are important ethnographical and anthropological collections at Budapest. The natural history collections of the Bohemian national museum at Prague are well arranged, though not remarkably extensive.
Russia.—The Rumiantsof Museum in Moscow possesses splendid buildings, with a library of over 700,000 volumes in addition to splendid artistic treasures, and is rich in natural history specimens. It is one of the most magnificent foundations of its kind in Europe. There are a number of magnificent museums in St Petersburg which contain stores of important material. Foremost among these is the museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, rich in collections illustrating the zoology, paleontology and ethnology, not only of the Russian Empire, but also of foreign lands. There are a number of provincial museums in the larger cities of Russia which are growing in importance.
Italy.—Italy is rich in museums of art, but natural history collections are not as strongly represented as in other lands. Connected with the various universities, are collections which possess more or less importance from the standpoint of the specialist. The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale at Genoa, and the collections preserved at the marine biological station at Naples, have most interest for the zoologist.
Spain.—There are no natural history collections of first importance in Spain, though at all the universities there are minor collections, which are in some instances creditably cared for and arranged.
Portugal.—The natural history museum at Lisbon contains important ornithological treasures.
Eastern Asia.—The awakening of the empire of Japan has resulted among other things in the cultivation of the modern sciences, and there are a number of scientific students, mostly trained in European and American universities, who are doing excellent work in the biological and allied sciences. Very creditable beginnings have been made in connexion with the Imperial University at Tokio for the establishment of a museum of natural history. At Shanghai there is a collection, gathered by the Chinese branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, which is in a decadent state, but contains much good material. Otherwise as yet the movement to establish museums has not laid strong hold upon the inhabitants of eastern Asia. At Batavia in Java, and at Manila in the Philippine Islands, there are found the nuclei of important collections.
United States.—The movement to establish museums in the United States is comparatively recent. One of the very earliest collections (1802), which, however, was soon dispersed, was made by Charles Willson Peale (q.v.). The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, established in 1812, is the oldest society for the promotion of the natural sciences in the United States. It possesses a very important library and some most excellent collections, and is rich in ornithological, conchological and botanical types. The city of Philadelphia also points with pride to the free museum of archaeology connected with the university of Pennsylvania, and to the Philadelphia museums, the latter museums of commerce, but which incidentally do much to promote scientific knowledge, especially in the domain of ethnology, botany and mineralogy. The Wistar Institute of Anatomy is well endowed and organized. The zoological museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is associated with the names of Louis and Alexander Agassiz, the former of whom by his learning and activity as a collector, and the latter by his munificent gifts, as well as by his important researches, not only created the institution, but made it a potent agency for the advancement of science. The Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, likewise connected with Harvard University, is one of the greatest institutions of its kind in the New World. The Essex Institute at Salem, Massachusetts, is noteworthy. The Butterfield Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and the Fairbanks Museum of Natural Science (1891) at St Johnsbury, Vermont, are important modern institutions. In, the museum of Amherst College are preserved the types of the birds described by J. J. Audubon, the shells described by C. B. Adams, the mineralogical collections of Charles Upham Shepard, and the paleontological collections of President Hitchcock. In Springfield (1898) and Worcester, Massachusetts, there are excellent museums. The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, contains much of the paleontological material described by Professor O. C. Marsh. The New York State Museum at Albany is important from a geological and paleontological standpoint. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City, founded in 1869, provision for the growth and enlargement of which upon a scale of the
