{"id":56909,"date":"2025-08-20T13:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=56909"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:52:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:52:23","slug":"earle-mcgraw-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/earle-mcgraw-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Hill Is Home to Amazing \u2018Collections of Collections\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our Big Red history expert recalls the McGraw Hall museum, which once housed an astounding array of objects<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Corey Ryan Earle \u201907<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrepare yourself for a terrible financial revelation,\u201d founding president Andrew Dickson White wrote to his mother, \u201cas well as an avalanche of the most splendid books ever seen in Syracuse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It was 1854, and White had just graduated from Yale and traveled to Europe. An avid collector, he was warning her of the impending arrival\u2014and cost\u2014of his book purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleven years later, with the signing of Cornell\u2019s charter, White had the opportunity to put his collecting habit to work for the new institution: the report laying out his plan for the University\u2019s structure and needs used the words \u201ccollection\u201d or \u201ccollections\u201d 33 times in 48 pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While teaching history at the University of Michigan, White had recognized the importance of collections and primary sources.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"An<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As he wrote in his autobiography: \u201cI found that passages actually read from important originals during my lectures gave a reality and vividness to my instruction which were otherwise unattainable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Ezra Cornell, White found a kindred spirit with deep pockets. Two months before the University\u2019s founding, Ezra wrote his eldest son about acquiring a geology collection: \u201cIf we have a college or university we shall have to procure a cabinet of natural history and this as far as it goes is the best in the state and best in the world of the history of the NY rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fossil
Jason Koski \/ Cornell University<\/figcaption>
The University acquired a collection of mollusk fossils in the 1800s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In his memoir, White also documented his co-founder\u2019s contributions to the growing teaching collections: \u201cThen came the Jewett collection in geology, which he gave at a cost of $10,000; the Ward collection of casts, at a cost of $3,000; the Newcomb collection in conchology, at a cost of $16,000 \u2026 The scientific collections and apparatus of various sorts gave him constant pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with University buildings still under construction, space was a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe great quantities of furniture, apparatus, and books which I had sent from Europe,\u201d White recalled, \u201chad been deposited wherever storage could be found.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"exterior
The Slope-facing side of McGraw Hall in the late 1800s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The opening of McGraw Hall in 1872 alleviated some of the pressure. Its center section became the University museum, with an atrium extending from the second through fourth floors, and two upper galleries overlooking the main hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This grand space is where many of Cornell\u2019s world-class collections began, across a wide range of disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The scientific collections and apparatus of various sorts gave him constant pleasure.<\/p>\nA.D. White<\/strong>, on co-founder Ezra Cornell<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Visitors could view architectural photographs<\/a> (now in Kroch Library); archaeological and anthropological collections (recently moved to the new Anthropology Collaboratory in Olin Library<\/a>); the Wilder Brain Collection<\/a> (now in the Psychology Department in Uris Hall); zoological collections (now housed in the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates<\/a> at the Lab of Ornithology); geological and mineralogical collections (some in the Heasley Mineralogy Museum<\/a> in Snee Hall); and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image
From 1891\u20131906, McGraw’s Museum of Classical Archaeology was home to dozens of plaster casts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Until Uris\u2019s completion, one floor of McGraw was the University Library\u2014with the books then replaced by Cornell\u2019s collection of plaster casts<\/a> until Goldwin Smith Hall opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New acquisitions\u2014often from faculty research expeditions or alumni donations\u2014were regularly announced in the Daily Sun<\/em>. They included an Egyptian mummy named Penpi, the preserved heart of Jumbo the circus elephant, shells, fossils, eight display cases of human brains, and a range of stuffed, pickled, preserved, and defleshed (non-human) specimens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years, the museum\u2019s centerpiece was a plaster cast skeleton of a prehistoric Megatherium ground sloth. Overhead was a cast of a plesiosaur that now hangs in Snee Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a
Joe Wilensky \/ Cornell University<\/figcaption>
The famed plesiosaur cast (right) has hung in Snee Hall since 1984.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When a manatee from South America arrived in 1885, headlines announced \u201cCornell Gets a Real Truly Mermaid.\u201d (While the skeleton remains on campus, the whereabouts of its skull are unknown.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the museum attracted a wide range of visitors, most of its items were for scientific purposes, not just display\u2014allowing scholars to study and teach with the best illustrative examples available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the museum attracted a wide range of visitors, most of its items were for scientific purposes, not just display.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The museum in McGraw had no full-time staff; faculty curated their own cabinets and exhibits, creating a hodgepodge of curiosities with varying levels of care and attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, as campus expanded and departments moved out of McGraw, the museum shrank and collections were dispersed across campus, leaving the zoological specimens among the last on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 1920, a \u201cGuide to the Campus\u201d noted the museum\u2019s \u201cinadequate lighting, narrow quarters, and antiquated cases \u2026 The collections have suffered from lack of care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Brains
A small sampling of brain specimens in the late 1800s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Various renovations and remodels gradually reduced the museum space, until the atrium and its galleries vanished and evolved into faculty offices by the mid-20th century. (Now, with the building once again under construction, another chapter in McGraw\u2019s history will begin.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the museum is no more, its spirit lives on in Cornell\u2019s vast teaching collections. From anatomical specimens to rare artifacts, these carefully curated objects continue to fulfill White\u2019s vision of hands-on, experiential learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expert on Big Red lore, <\/em>Corey Ryan Earle \u201907<\/em><\/strong><\/a> teaches \u201cThe First American University,\u201d a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: The atrium of McGraw Hall in 1889<\/em><\/em>, when it housed the Museum of Vertebrates. (All photos courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published August 20, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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