William James considered Jeffries Wyman "an exemplar of the scientific life." In cooperation with his colleagues Loius Agassiz and Asa Gray, Wyman is noted for making Harvard America's most distinguished center for the study of natural history. In addition to his teaching of comparative anatomy, he initiated the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, using his private collection, and also was the first curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaelogy and Ethnology. In contrast to Louis Agassiz, he was sympathetic to evolution, as were Asa Gray of Harvard and both William Barton Rogers, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his brother, Henry Darwin Rogers.