Georges Cuvier sketch of a gecko

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  Georges Cuvier diplomas

  Manuscripts

  Three diplomas signed by Georges Cuvier: Doctorate in Medicine and two different Bachelor of Belles-Lettres. All printed on vellum. The doctoral diploma is dated 1817, July 26. The first Bachelor of Belles-Lettres diplomas is dated 1822, March 9. The second Bachelor's diploma is dated 1830, September 30. All three signed by Cuvier and the president of the University of France.

  mssHM 80408 (a-c)

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  A sketch of the lower falls, and ferry of Saratoga, thirty six miles above Albany and nine miles below Fort Edward. [cartographic material]

  Manuscripts

  Manuscript plan, a copy by Patrick Mackellar, and drafted probably around 1756, before the fort was built on Georges Island. Kashnor, in the Museum Book Store catalog, locates Georges Island on the Hudson River, just above the junction with Fish Creek River in Saratoga County. The location of Georges Island, or its modern-day name has not been verified.

  mssHM 15458

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  Génération continue des races actuelles par les séries animales et végétales: memoir, autograph manuscript draft

  Manuscripts

  In this handwritten, signed manuscript, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire is discussing evolutionary theory from a philosophical and historical standpoint. He cites a number of important scientists and philosophers such as Georges-Louis Lecler, Comte de Buffon, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Johann Wolfgang von Geothe, Johannes Müller, Lorenz Oken, Georges Cuvier, Jan van der Hoeven, Henri Dutrochet, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, and devotes several pages of the manuscript to a discussion of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. It is likely that this manuscript was intended for publication and as a follow-up to another unpublished memoir titled "Mémoire pour établier que le principe de l'unité typéale de l'organisation contient des élémens revelatoires..." The manuscript is in French.

  mssHM 74831

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  [Drawing of left leg and 15 lines of verse] : [graphic, manuscript]

  Manuscripts

  Black chalk drawing of left leg accompanied by 15 lines of verse in brown ink. Both in the hand of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Depicts a left leg slightly bent, with thigh, knee and part of the calf visible. The drawing has been identified by some scholars as a study for the Last Judgement. A second faint sketch of an architectural detail lies in the center of the page, near lines 8-12 of the verse. The verse has been identified as fragments of one or two madrigals written by Michelangelo, probably a draft of "gli sguardi che mi strazji."

  mssHM 36088

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  George Catlin papers and illustrations

  Manuscripts

  This collection consists of roughly 252 unbound illustrations of Indians in both North and South America, by artist and author George Catlin, and other items all related to Catlin's unpublished manuscript The North Americans in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Collection contains bound folio manuscript of The North Americans in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century (Volume A). The contents of Volume A are: Map of North America with Distribution of tribes, Prospectus, Preface, Second Preface, Lists of tribes, Descriptions of plates, and Glossary. There is also a small, bound volume consisting of the report of J. Garland Pollard of the Smithsonian Museum, who identified many of the illustrations for Rogers (Volume B). The contents of Volume B are: Letter from J. Garland Pollard to A. Howard Clark, Curator of the National Museum (1892, Apr. 18), Lists of illustrations called for in the manuscript "The North Americans," letter from William Hallett Phillips to Archibald Rogers (1892, Dec. 27), and letter from George B. Grinnell to William Hallett Phillips (1892, Oct 24). The unbound illustrations consist of the following: 24 finished color cartoons, 26 unfinished color cartoons, 38 finished pencil outlines, 107 unfinished pencil outlines (many are counterproofs), and 43 line cuts (from Catlin's published works). They were probably composed for the most part during the late 1860s in Brussels, particularly those means to accompany the manuscript, and those unidentified ones which clearly portray the South American Indians which Catlin visited only during his final explorations in the 1850s. Most of the drawings and cartoons are copies of cartoons prepared by Catlin to replace his original collection confiscated in 1851, and therefore their original versions in many cases date from the 1830s. The line cuts are taken from Catlin's books and were inserted by Archibald Roger's agent in places where no drawing existed corresponding to a particular description in the manuscript text. The illustrations numbered 1-206 in the collection correspond to the descriptions in Pollard's report; in many cases a described illustration is missing from the collection (the drawing numbers are not truly consecutive); in other cases as many as three versions (enumerated a, b, c) of the same illustration exist, in different media. Illustrations numbered consist of paintings and drawings not described in the text, and otherwise unidentified, expect that many are clearly South American subjects. Illustrations numbered 265-285 are partially finished copies (with colored backgrounds but figures outlined) on cardboard canvas paintings (originally 27 in number) forming a series entitled "Voyages of Discovery by LaSalle" which Catlin was commissioned to do by Louis Philippe of France, and which are described in Catlin's Catalogue…of Catlin's Indian cartoons (New York, 1871, 67-69). Most of the illustrations (except for the LaSalle) consist of group portraits, full-length, of Indians, arranged by tribe. Those painted in oils are marked "color" in the container list, although in some cases the coloring is incomplete, consisting of yellow figures against an undifferentiated greenish background. The drawn figures are generally counterproofs; in many cases Catlin has drown over the counterproof outlines in pencil, refining them, and this drawing is noted in the container list as well. Illustrations cut out Catlin's books are marked "printed." Collection also contains facsimiles of correspondence from the New York Historical Society, as well as photocopies of Catlin manuscripts and drawings from the Newberry Library, Yale University Library, and the New York Public Library. Collection also contains the original mat labels and the original binding for Volume A.

  mssHM 35183

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  Eric Bergland plan of Fort Yuma

  Manuscripts

  This manuscript, attributed to Bergland but not signed by him, is a pencil drawing done by hand of the arrangement of the various buildings of Fort Yuma, for purposes of the Wheeler Survey. Included are approximate measurements of the buildings and of the spaces between. Dated 1876, March 15-20.

  mssHM 16552