Word: hanken
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According to Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology James Hanken, director of the MCZ and curator of the herpetology collection, Agassiz’s views had a large impact on the original work of the museum...
...Louis Agassiz went to his grave trying to refute evolution,” Hanken says. “That’s why he amassed these huge collections. Through many of the early years of this museum, the main objectives were just to describe and categorize life on earth and to test Darwin’s theory of evolution...
...Even in the nineteenth century, there was a sense that the world was changing,” Hanken says. “A lot of natural history museums were created to collect information about animals and plants before they disappeared...
This role is central to the concept of a collection, according to Hanken. He does concede, however, that there was a period when museums no longer seemed as relevant to scientific research...