Annual Report 



of the Director 



To the Trustees: 



I have the honor to present a report of the operation of the Museum 

 for the year ending December 31, 1956. 



Perhaps the outstanding event of the year was the installation 

 in Stanley Field Hall of an exhibit consisting of two dinosaur 

 skeletons — those of Gorgosaurus and Lambeosaurus, dinosaurs that 

 roamed the earth about 75 million years ago in an area now known 

 as Alberta, Canada. It was felt that only in Stanley Field Hall 

 could this important group be seen to advantage (see facing page). 

 It now shares the spotlight with the two Akeley elephants, which 

 are so well known as to be almost a Museum trademark. The 

 installation of the dinosaurs was celebrated by a special evening for 

 Members, when the Board of Trustees officially presented the group 

 as their personal gift to the Museum (see page 24). The tremendous 

 popular interest in this installation was evidenced by the large 

 amount of publicity in newspapers and magazines. Its world-wide 

 impact is indicated by stories in the daily papers of Dublin, Ireland, 

 and Sydney, Australia, and by a feature article in the magazine of 

 UNESCO (see page 71, Public Relations). 



Other outstanding improvements in the Museum's exhibition 

 program were achieved on the ground floor of the east wing of the 

 building by reinstallations in the halls housing Melanesian, Poly- 

 nesian, Micronesian, Indonesian, and Australian ethnological ex- 



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