Introduction : the cost of doing business -- The beginnings of government support for paleontology -- Eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century paleontologists and patrons -- Developments in government support for paleontology in the United States between 1830 to about 1880 -- Paleontology in mid nineteenth-century surveys outside the United States -- Government support for paleontology in the late nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth century : 1880 to about 1940 -- Conclusion : the chain of paleontology -- Appendix : glossary of prominent patrons and paleontologists