In the recent growth of knowledge there has been rapid progress in two
directions. The commercial exploitation of natural resources, being
fundamental to modern civilization, attracts a liberal share of the
talents and energies of workers trained for the industrial professions.
A second trend has specialized in the further development of the
sciences which are characteristic of our time. Such activities, in the
natural history field, deal largely with the refinements of exact
definition, nomenclature and classification, all of which means little
or nothing to the layman who is otherwise engaged.
For the latter, however, there is a quality of interest which may be
described as a wholesome curiosity about what has happened, how it
happened, how we know it happened, and what it may signify to one who is
neither industrialist nor scientist. This booklet is intended for the
many who feel that there is more to be obtained from a natural history
museum than an occasional glimpse of a bewildering “marvel.” In addition
to being a guide to fossil exhibits it supplies parts of a great story
which specimens alone can not relate.