St. Louis Museum

Last updated November 21, 2024

The St. Louis Museum was a natural history museum located in St. Louis, Missouri. It was also known as Koch's Museum.

Location

The museum was located on the third floor of Wyman's Hall on Market Street in St. Louis, Missouri, opposite the Court House.^[1] Near where this museum once stood is the current location of the Museum of Westward Expansion under the Gateway Arch.^[2]

Museum Directors

According to The History of Science in St. Louis, Edward Wyman initially established the museum under the direction of J.P. Bates. Wyman collected natural history specimens for many years and was skilled in preparing and arranging the objects.^[1] Bates was also devoted to natural history, making frequent trips to Europe, South America, and the tropics to collect birds, quadrupeds, and other specimens.^[3] The museum held nearly 2500 specimens, many of which were speculated to not exist anywhere else in the country.^[1] Museum collections included curiosities from the East Indies and South Sea Islands, paintings and statuary, and minerals and shells.^[3]

In a contrasting article, The Living Museum states that Dr. Albert C. Koch opened the museum in 1836. Koch was a German immigrant from Saxony who settled in St. Louis. Koch's father was also interested in natural history and kept specimens in a cabinet in their home. In addition to Koch's scientific interests, he was also a museum proprietor with a flair for the spectacular who fostered a vaudevillelike atmosphere at the museum.^[2] He also fabricated several extraordinary skeletons from smaller remains of known species, and fraudulently displayed them as antediluvian creatures.^[4] Despite his showmanship, Koch played a significant role in scientific endeavors of the 19th century and his museum contained many important natural history collections.^[2]

Collections

Among the collections at the St. Louis Museum were a collection of American Indian costumes, weapons, pipes, instruments, and other items collected by General William Clark during his explorations of the Mississippi River with Meriweather Lewis. It is thought that Koch took possession of these items upon Clark's death. A second notable collection at the museum contained hundreds of fossils including one of the American mastodon. The fossils came from many locations, but most of them were discovered at three locations in Missouri. It was during excavations at Pomme de Terre River in Missouri between 1838 and 1840 that Koch found what came to be called the Missouri Leviathan, or Missourium. It was larger than an elephant with unique tusks. Later, anatomists found that this newly discovered specimen was merely a misassembled mastodon skeleton with a number of extra bones.

A contemporary drawing of Koch's "hydrarchos" or Zeugledon Hydrarchos.jpg — A contemporary drawing of Koch's "hydrarchos" or Zeugledon

A museum specimen of particular note was a fossil, the Hydrarchos or Zeuglodon, which the Complete Guide to the St. Louis Museum called "the greatest fossil in the world."^[3] The Zeuglodon was constructed mainly from basilosaurus fossils discovered in 1848 in a field in Alabama. After they were extricated from the rock in which they were found, Dr. Koch purchased the fossils for the St. Louis Museum. The fossils were shown to Yale chemist Benjamin Silliman, likely before being rearranged by Koch. Silliman, who had recently lectured on the basilosaurus, wrote a letter to Koch about his find.^[4] A broadside promoting the exhibit took Silliman's letter out of context and presented the hydrarchus as "Leviathan of the Antediluvian World".^[5] Professor Joseph Leidy also attested to the authenticity of the fossils, though it's not clear if he saw them before or after Koch's rearrangement. Professor Jeffries Wyman eventually exposed the hoax, and Silliman wrote another letter to Koch asking not to be associated with the exhibit. The hydrarchos continued to be displayed and was taken by Koch to Dresden, where it was destroyed by Allied bombing of that city during WWII. A smaller model was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.^[4]

Koch spent much of his time hunting fossils, and his time away from the museum lead to declining attendance. He was disappointed in the interest in his newly discovered Missourium specimen and some encouraged him to exhibit the specimen in Europe. This caused Koch to sell the St. Louis Museum in January 1841 and he left St. Louis. Koch toured the United States with his collections and later traveled to Europe where he exhibited the Missourium in London and Dublin. He later accepted an offer from the British Museum to purchase parts of his fossil collection, including the Missourium, for 1300 pounds. Today the Missourium is still standing in the British Museum, in correct anatomical order.^[2]

With Koch's departure, the museum fell on hard times and faded into history.^[2]

Building

After the museum's closure, Wyman's Hall became a concert venue and dance hall. The third floor, which housed the museum, was the city's primary concert space.^[6] The building burned down in June 1866, causing damages valued at $140,000.^[7]

Related Research Articles

A mastodon is a member of the genus Mammut, which was endemic to North America and lived from the late Miocene to the early Holocene. Mastodons belong to the order Proboscidea, the same order as elephants and mammoths. Mammut is the type genus of the extinct family Mammutidae, which diverged from the ancestors of modern elephants at least 27–25 million years ago, during the Oligocene.

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. With 4.4 million visitors in 2023, it was the third most-visited museum in the United States.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum located approximately five miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio in University Circle, a 550-acre concentration of educational, cultural and medical institutions. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Basilosaurus is a genus of large, predatory, prehistoric archaeocete whale from the late Eocene, approximately 41.3 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). First described in 1834, it was the first archaeocete and prehistoric whale known to science. Fossils attributed to the type species B. cetoides were discovered in the United States. They were originally thought to be of a giant reptile, hence the suffix "-saurus", Ancient Greek for "lizard". The animal was later found to be an early marine mammal, prompting attempts at renaming the creature, which failed as the rules of zoological nomenclature dictate using the original name given. Fossils were later found of the second species, B. isis, in 1904 in Egypt, Western Sahara, Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia, and Pakistan. Fossils have also been unearthed in the southeastern United States and Peru.

Dorudon ("spear-tooth") is a genus of extinct basilosaurid ancient whales that lived alongside Basilosaurus 40.4 to 33.9 million years ago in the Eocene. It was a small whale, with D. atrox measuring 5 metres (16 ft) long and weighing 1–2.2 metric tons. Dorudon lived in warm seas around the world and fed on small fish and mollusks. Fossils have been found along the former shorelines of the Tethys Sea in present-day Egypt and Pakistan, as well as in the United States, New Zealand and Western Sahara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beneski Museum of Natural History</span> Massachusetts museum

The Beneski Museum of Natural History, Amherst College, is located on the campus of Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. It showcases fossils and minerals collected locally and abroad, many by past and present students and professors. The museum is located in the Beneski Earth Sciences Building, completed in 2006. It is a member of Museums10.

Zygorhiza ("Yoke-Root") is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale known from the Late Eocene of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, United States, and the Bartonian to the late Eocene of New Zealand . Specimens reported from Europe are considered Dorudontinae incertae sedis.

The Museum of the Earth is a natural history museum located in Ithaca, New York. The museum was opened in 2003 as part of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI), an independent organization pursuing research and education in the history of the Earth and its life. Both PRI and the Museum of the Earth are formally affiliated with Cornell University. The Museum of the Earth is home to Earth science exhibits and science-related art displays with a focus on the concurrent evolution of the Earth and life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama Museum of Natural History</span> Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

The Alabama Museum of Natural History is the state's natural history museum, located in Smith Hall at the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa. The oldest museum in the state, it was founded in 1831.

The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History (UMMNH) is a natural history museum of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.

Pontogeneus is a genus of extinct cetacean known from fossils recovered from the Late Eocene sediments of the southeastern United States.

Paleontology in Michigan refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Michigan. During the Precambrian, the Upper Peninsula was home to filamentous algae. The remains it left behind are among the oldest known fossils in the world. During the early part of the Paleozoic Michigan was covered by a shallow tropical sea which was home to a rich invertebrate fauna including brachiopods, corals, crinoids, and trilobites. Primitive armored fishes and sharks were also present. Swamps covered the state during the Carboniferous. There are little to no sedimentary deposits in the state for an interval spanning from the Permian to the end of the Neogene. Deposition resumed as glaciers transformed the state's landscape during the Pleistocene. Michigan was home to large mammals like mammoths and mastodons at that time. The Holocene American mastodon, Mammut americanum, is the Michigan state fossil. The Petoskey stone, which is made of fossil coral, is the state stone of Michigan.

Paleontology in Alabama refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Alabama. Pennsylvanian plant fossils are common, especially around coal mines. During the early Paleozoic, Alabama was at least partially covered by a sea that would end up being home to creatures including brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and graptolites. During the Devonian the local seas deepened and local wildlife became scarce due to their decreasing oxygen levels.

Paleontology in Missouri refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Missouri. The geologic column of Missouri spans all of geologic history from the Precambrian to present with the exception of the Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic. Brachiopods are probably the most common fossils in Missouri.

The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, an early paleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) mural The Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Egyptian artifacts; local birds and minerals; and Native Americans of Connecticut.

The research history of Mammut is extensive given its complicated taxonomic and non-taxonomic histories, with the earliest recorded fossil finds dating back to 1705 in Claverack, New York during the colonial era of what is now the United States of America. Initially thought to belong to biblical antediluvian giants, the fossils were later determined to belong to a proboscidean species as a result of more complete 18th century finds from the locality of Big Bone Lick in what is now Kentucky. The molars were studied by European and American naturalists, who were generally baffled on its lack of analogue to modern elephants, leading to varying hypothesis on the affinities of the teeth. More complete skeletons were found after the independence of the United States colonies from Great Britain within the early 19th century. American historians of the 21st century have made arguments that the early history of M. americanum finds and studies played major roles in shaping American nationalism on the basis of the large sizes and relative completeness of the fossils to disprove the negative theory of social degeneracy in North America.

The Philadelphia Museum was an early museum in Philadelphia started by the painter Charles Willson Peale and continued by his family. It was opened in 1784 as an art museum and added a natural history collection in 1786. The exhibits included the first nearly complete skeleton of the mastodon, a relative of the mammoth. Peale died in 1827 and the collection was sold in 1849 and 1854.

References

1 2 3 Klem, Mary J. (1914). The History of Science in St. Louis. St. Louis, MO.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
1 2 3 4 5 McMilan, R. Bruce (1980). "Objects of Curiosity: Albert Koch's 1840 St. Louis Museum". The Living Museum. 42 (2, 03). Retrieved May 5, 2016.
1 2 3 Complete Guide to the St. Louis Museum. St. Louis, MO: R.P. Studley and Co. 1859.
1 2 3 "A Yale Professor's "Lecture" on Giants in the Time of the Great Sea Serpent Fraud". Jason Colavito. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
↑ "The hydrarchos!! Or, leviathan of the antediluvian world! / Broadsides and Ephemera Collection / Duke Digital Repository". Duke Digital Collections. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
↑ "Old Concert Halls of St. Louis". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. December 3, 1899. p. 4.
↑ "More Fires in St. Louis". Canton Press. June 7, 1866.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 3 Klem, Mary J. (1914). The History of Science in St. Louis. St. Louis, MO.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[:2-2] 1 2 3 4 5 McMilan, R. Bruce (1980). "Objects of Curiosity: Albert Koch's 1840 St. Louis Museum". The Living Museum. 42 (2, 03). Retrieved May 5, 2016.

[:1-3] 1 2 3 Complete Guide to the St. Louis Museum. St. Louis, MO: R.P. Studley and Co. 1859.

[:4-4] 1 2 3 "A Yale Professor's "Lecture" on Giants in the Time of the Great Sea Serpent Fraud". Jason Colavito. Retrieved 2019-09-05.

[5] "The hydrarchos!! Or, leviathan of the antediluvian world! / Broadsides and Ephemera Collection / Duke Digital Repository". Duke Digital Collections. Retrieved 2019-09-05.

[6] "Old Concert Halls of St. Louis". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. December 3, 1899. p. 4.

[7] "More Fires in St. Louis". Canton Press. June 7, 1866.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]