319
OPENING OF THE ESSEX MUSEUM OP
NATURAL HISTORY BY THE COUNTESS
OF WARWICK, AND THE RE-OPENING
OF THE WEST HAM TECHNICAL INSTI-
TUTE BY MR. PASSMORE EDWARDS.
IMPORTANT SPEECHES ON THE OBJECTS AND METHODS
OF LOCAL MUSEUMS AND ON TECHNICAL EDUCA-
TION, BY LADY WARWICK, MR. PASSMORE EDWARDS
AND PROF. MELDOLA.
Thursday, October i8th, 1900.
[With Plates VIII. and IX.]
The inception and progress of the Essex Museum of Natural
History has been fully recorded in the Essex Naturalist, and
in the annual reports of the Council of the Club since the
original proposal was placed before the Town Council of the
Borough of West Ham in the autumn of 1897. The Foundation-
stone of the Museum was laid by Mr. Passmore Edwards on
October 6th, 1898 (Essex Nat., X., pp. 337-46) and one year
later on the above-named afternoon, October 18th, 1900, the
completion of the second stage in its development was gracefully
and worthily emphasised by the public opening of the building
by the Right Honourable the Countess of Warwick. On the
same afternoon the magnificent Municipal Technical Institute,
which had been partially destroyed by the disastrous fire of
October 23rd, 1899, was re-opened by Mr. Passmore Edwards
to whose generosity the friends of the Museum are so greatly
indebted.
For the purposes of the meeting the Curator had prepared
a pamphlet which explained the scheme of the Museum and the
principles of the agreement between the Corporation of West
Ham and the Essex Field Club. It also contained a description
of the building kindly furnished by Mr. S. B. Russell,
A.R.I.B.A., the Architect. To this brochure the reader is
referred1
The ceremony of opening the Museum came first and a
large company of guests (members of the Corporation and the
1 "The Essex Museum of Natural History. . . A short statement of the Constitution,
Aims and Methods of the Museum" (with portrait of Mr. Passmore Edwards.) By W Cole,
F.L.S., F.E.S., Curator. Price 3d.