What is a Museum?

There is often some confusion between the building where a museum is located and the museum itself. A museum is where artifacts are presented for public education, enlightenment, and entertainment. These artifacts together give the public a window into the science, technology, and history. A museum also functions as storage and care of artifacts in their collections not currently on display. In this way, museums act as a public trust, preserving elements of science and history so that future generations may have links to aid understanding the past. Finally, museums make their collections available to academic research, so that students and professional researchers may observe and relate these materials into the greater understanding of the past. The results of these observations often yield academic writings to be shared with other researchers who lack access to a specific collection. This research also permits the museum to construct informative exhibits so the public may gain greater education and understanding from their museum visits.

The Nebraska University Museum of Natural Science began as a collection for students of natural science to learn their subject. Over years of dedication and hard work, the initial collection expanded into the current museum based out of Morrill Hall on the city campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. While many people devoted themselves to the creation of the current museum, five men of the Nebraska University can be seen as pivotal actors in the history of the museum.

In University Hall 1871-1888

In the first meeting of the Nebraska University Board of Regents, the need for a comprehensive type collection of animals, minerals, and plants was considered to be so important that they allocated four percent of their modest budget to the acquisition and maintenance of their collection (Schultz, 45). As this was considered to be central to the study of natural science, the first professor of natural science, Samuel Aughey, was given charge of the collection. From 1871 to 1885, Aughey added to this initial collection at a phenomenal rate. He was known best for his enthusiasm, and less for his adherence to strict scientific guidelines. With all the responsibilities placed on him between teaching students and answering the questions from the public, it is not surprising that careful cataloguing of his staggering array of flowing plants and minerals fell behind the collecting (Nicholson, 309-312).

The first home for the collection was in the multi-purpose University Hall, which also housed classrooms, administrative offices, and the university library. Descriptions from the era soon noted the overflow of the collection spreading into adjacent hallways and classrooms.

In 1885, Samuel Aughey resigned from the Nebraska University for reasons of health, most likely due to spending so many years struggling to do too much work for too many people (Myers,316).

In 1884, responsibility for the cabinet was shared between two professors following a division of natural science into Geology and Allied Sciences and Botany and Horticulture. Lewis E. Hicks and Charles E. Bessey divided their time between adding their own elements to the collection and struggling to catalogue Aughey's additions.