New accessions to the museum, organized by genre, were carefully recorded by hand in bound volumes or notebooks. Each accession was assigned a number. Catalogues are inventories of particular collections, usually assembled by a single collector or small group of collectors. Inventories are lists or descriptions of items in the museum. These materials reflect the museum's natural history focus, with many bird, fish, mammal and insect specimens. There are also detailed lists of shells, minerals, wood samples, coins, marbles, and even a detailed description of the museum's mummy. There are also catalogs of some of the curiosities donated to the museum by collectors or groups; for example, the Missionary Lyceum, an 19th century Wesleyan student group, recorded African, Indian, and South American materials in their "Catalogue of Curiosities".