"To illustrate…the natural history of the state…” With these
words, set down in 1887, the North Carolina General Assembly
articulated the mission of the State Museum. The Museum’s
origins can be traced back further, to 1879, when the merger of
the state’s agricultural and geological collections planted the
seed for what would eventually blossom into the largest museum
of its kind in the Southeast. A pair of English immigrants
guided the institution’s growth through the first half century,
firmly setting the Museum’s roots in a nurturing blend of
research and collections, education and conservation.. Herbert
Hutchinson Brimley and Clement Samuel Brimley grew up in the
collecting tradition of middle-class England. In 1880, a chance
meeting with a U.S. Department of Agriculture recruiter
convinced them that North Carolina held great promise for hard-
working, genteel folk like themselves. The young men soon made
their way to Raleigh, thrilled to discover new frontiers for
their natural history investigations. The