Transcribe Ward, Henry A. Letter to Brooks, Gary (1877-09-01)

as about these cabinets, And could he but have lived for another year, he would, I think, have been both pleased and greatly satisfied by the approval which the University and Men of Science throughout </s the corridor > America will give to the completed work. Mr Broad's contact with me in- cluded cabinets if Minerlogy Geology and Zoology. For those cabinets I gave detail specifications of many folio pages in length which were studied and approved by the University Trustees and their advisers. The committee to examine these contains three of the best </s known > Scientists (each is his own de- partment) in America; with Prof. Henry, the Director of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, at their head. It was a part of the plan to include a cabinet of </u Botany >. - but this was by Mr Brooks postponed until my return from Europe and the completion of the present portion. In general answer to a request of his about a year ago that I should report about the wants of the Cabinet I wrote him last </s Get > September that the Botany was the next thing to provide for. In that letter ^ ( a copy of which I have kept)^ I said to him, "Botany is as yet unprovided for. But this science is not at all behind the others in the importance in the circle of Sciences. It lies with Minerlogy & Zoology at the very basis of all study of Geology. We have </s made > a hall ^prepared^ for it in our Natural Science Building and our plan is not complete without it. The Cabinet of Botany should go in there, if possible at the same time with the other collections, to