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specimens, historical relics, reptiles, birds, mammals &c are desired and those who can make donations of this kind will be gratefully remembered.” Meek was an adjunct and associate professor of biology and geology from 1891 until 1896.33 His A List of Fishes and Mollusks Collected in Arkansas and Indian Territory was published in 1894, and he donated his private collections of about 250 species, mostly lower invertebrates, to the museum.34 Into the 1890s, “Through the kindness of the ’Frisco and Eureka Springs Railroad the curator [i.e., Meek] has been much aided in making collections in northwestern Arkansas, these roads having furnished him with free transportation over their lines in Arkansas.”35 In 1896, Meek was succeeded as curator by Professor Albert Homer Purdue, who was “elected associate professor of geology and curator of the museum” that year and was promoted to full professor two years later.36 Purdue was also the de facto state geologist of Arkansas, and he remained at the University of Arkansas until 1912, when he left to become the state geologist of Tennessee. Around 1900, his office was on the fourth floor of University Hall (Old Main)—also the location of the museum.37 Growth of the museum continued under Purdue’s direction, and in 1898 “several new sloping-top cases with drawers beneath have recently been added.”38 These are shown in a circa 1902 photograph of the exhibit hall. The 1902 university catalogue notes that the museum “occupies the fourth floor of the south wing of the main building,” and that some “large additions” were recently made to equipment “to facilitate instruction in geology and biology, and also to make it of increased interest to the visiting public.”39 At the time, the museum collections included minerals, a petrographic collection, a paleontology collection, the Major Earle collection (minerals and fossils), as well as zoology and botanical collections.40 Today, the University of 44 ■ ■ ■ HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS MUSEUM Figure 60.The University of Arkansas Museum, circa 1894. ...

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