ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 

 1899-1900. 



To the Trustees of the Field Columbian Museum: 



I have the honor to present a report of the operations of the 

 Museum for the year closing September 30, 1900. Your Director 

 has been absent from his post several months of the period covered 

 by this report, and must rely more than usual upon the reports of 

 the heads of departments for such information as is conveyed to you 

 hereby. As will be apparent from the details following, very im- 

 portant improvements have been made, and owing to the personal 

 attention given by the President to the executive work of the institu- 

 tion, the year records unusual activity and progress. An important 

 action of the Executive Committee has been the abandonment of all 

 the industrial and historical collections of the Museum. With the 

 exception of the annex occupied by transportation, the halls hereto- 

 fore occupied by the industrial arts have been or soon will be trans- 

 ferred to the use of the Department of Anthropology, and the material 

 heretofore contained therein returned to the donor, presented to 

 appropriate institutions or stored away for further consideration. In 

 this connection it is well to note the distribution of the material, 

 photographs, paintings, etc., in Columbus Memorial Hall to the Chi- 

 cago Historical Society, the University of Chicago, the Newberry 

 Library, and to a number of schools in the state; also the presenta- 

 tion by President Higinbotham of the collection of dressed and 

 undressed skins of mammals, birds and reptiles that may be utilized 

 for commercial purposes, to the Commercial Museum of Philadelphia. 

 This collection, which had attracted considerable attention, had been 

 purchased with other material from Tiffany & Company of New York 

 by Mr. Higinbotham and presented to the Museum. The action of 

 the Trustees above referred to rendered this material inappropriate 

 under the scope adopted and it was returned to Mr. Higinbotham, 

 who, as stated, presented it to a museum devoted to commercial ends. 



Staff of the Museum. — The personnel of the staff remains prac- 

 tically unchanged. The resignation of Mr. Dieserud, Librarian of 



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