Barnum Museum of Natural History

Overview In 1883, the great showman P. T. Barnum agreed to build an eponymous museum of natural history on the campus of Tufts University, which he had served as a founding trustee. After a long career managing dime museums and a travelling circus, Barnum hoped to secure a positive legacy through the creation of an unambiguously serious institution. In addition to building and collections funds, Barnum supplied the Tufts museum – as well as the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural History in New...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of the correspondence and collected papers of Russell Carpenter. Over the course of his almost seventy year association with Tufts, Carpenter created and collected photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia from his student days (1920-1924); correspondence, photographs, lantern and 35mm slides, and films of the Class of 1924 from their time at Tufts and eleven reunions (1924-1984); documents relating to his alumni activities outside of the Class of 1924; and any and...

Scope and Contents From the Series: This series consists of photographic negatives and prints taken of events, places, and people around Tufts College from 1947-1965