Megatherium Cuvieri

and the birth and death of the Deseret Museum

Museum and Menagerie

In 1869, John W. Young a son of Brigham Young, established a venture to collect and advertise the history and resources of Utah. The first curator of the museum, Gugliemo Sangiovanni, was a British-born convert to the Church who had recently returned from a mission in Europe. During his mission to Italy, he visited the 1867 Paris Exp…