Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 294, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1919 — NEED FOR MEMORIAL MUSEUM FELT AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY [ARTICLE]

NEED FOR MEMORIAL MUSEUM FELT AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Bloomington, Ind., Theodore Roosevelt’s work as a naturalist was much discussed during the campaign for his memorial, but it is little known that Indiana University has the honor of housing one of his early collections of bjrds. As a young man, Roosevelt was much interested in the collection of birds that frequented the country near his home. After a time this collection was sold, after beIng divided into small tuts, ana et which the university was fortunate enough to obtain. The local collection consists of seventy-five specimens, including a kingfisher, gull, owl, bluebird, duck, wookpecker and numerous other small birls. » For lack of an adequate museum this collection is no * housed in the dingy basement of Biology hall and is not readily accessible. Each specimen is labeled in the former president’s handwriting. At the time , the collection was purchased, no thought was given to the prominence of the collector but only to the value of the skins, and now the suggestion is made that a Roosevelt Memorial Museum shbuid be provided for the university by either a private endowment or through state aid.