Natural History Museums
Museums of Natural History or “Cabinets of Natural Curios” as they were sometimes called, were established in the first half of the nineteenth century in connection with the various natural history societies. These were of much service in stimulating the collection of zoological “specimens” and in arousing a popular interest in natural history.
The zoological museum of earlier days consisted of rows on rows of systematically arranged specimens, each carefully labelled with scientific name, locality, date of collection and donor—much like the pages of a catalogue. All this has now been changed; the bottles of specimens have been relegated to the storeroom, and the great plate glass cases of the modern museum represent individual studies in the various fields of modern zoological research, or individual chapters in the latest biological text-books. Often the talent of the artist and the skill of the taxidermist are cunningly combined to produce most realistic bits of nature.
The United States National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Columbian Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology are among the finest museums of the world, while many of the states, cities, and universities maintain public museums as a part of their educational systems.