Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1894 [PAGE 308]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

STATE LABORATORY OF NATURAL HISTORY/

309

for the care of this material under the circumstances existing and soon to ensue. The destructive consequences to our delicate and perishable collections which must follow upon even a temporary mistake in this matter, and t h e unfortunate complications likely to arise if a wrong beginning were made, lead us to ask t h a t our judgment—greatly enlightened as it has been by the season's experience with the present aquarium plant —may thus be allowed due weight in the selection of the temporary aquarium staff, upon whom the care of the material for the winter will fall. * As this i> perhaps the most difficult and important, and at the same time t h e most urgent, feature of the proposed arrangement, I have anticipated the action of the trustees so far as to get the consent of the Commissioner u t h e continuance—for some months if desired—of one of t h e present aquarium superintendents, a regular employe of t h e fish commission, to whom the commissioner is willing to give leave of absence for a time to enable him to help over t h e emergency. I have also ascertained t h a t all t h t present aquarium assistants, who are now a body of picked and trained men, thoroughly acquainted with the situation and their duties, would be willing to continue—at least for a time—in their present employment. The existing organization can thus be carried over, without a break, in a way to secure the safety of our material for the winter, and to give the trustees ample time to mature a permanent organization and select a satisfactory staff. "So far as the general zoological supervision of the aquarium is concerned, I beg to say t h a t it will be a pleasure to me to serve t h e trustees temporarily in this matter, with the understanding t h a t I shall be relieved as soon as a satisfactory selection of a permanent director can be made. "The foregoing statement contains all the conditions precedent to a transfer. I t will be seen t h a t they are intended merely to find a basis of agreement between Commissioner McDonald and t h e trustees of the Columbian Museum as to the general purposes and policy of the aquarium, and to secure the safety of t h e collections during t h e period of readjustment and reorganization. "I should add as an item of information, which may be of interest to you, t h a t it is now agreed t h a t in case t h e arrangement here proposed is not made, t h e collections shall be placed in charge of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural Histor.y (of whicji I am director) for distribution to t h e public high schools and educational institutions of the vState of Illinois. I very much prefer, however, such a disposition ot them as may result in a permanent, living, active scientific institution of t h e first class, so related aud supported as to give us a fair assurance of its development in accordance with the importance of its field and the greatness of the city which it will represent. " I am further authorized by Commissioner McDonald to say t h a t it such an institution be provided for in Chicago, he will be glad to undertake to establish in connection with it a first-class lishcultural station of the IT. S. Fish Commission, on condition t h a t grounds can be found for such an establishment. If this idea were carried out, we should have, practically in one institution, a popular aquarium of the first class, a bio ogical station maintained in the interests of science, and a fish commission station devoted to the practical application of aquatic zoology. Such an association of kindred undertakings would greatly reduce t h e cost of maintaining each, as many of t h e facilities and much of the apparatus could be adapted to all three as readily as to one alone. " I shall be glad to meet with t h e trustees, or with any committee appointed by them, for further consideration of this matter at any time they may suggest.'' The museum trustees were eventually obliged to decline t h e proposed gift, owing to a lack of funds secured and available for either immediate or permanent maintenance, and owing to the incompleteness of the museum plans and organization at t h a t early date, and I therefore made an identical proposition to t h e South Park commissioners. In the mean-