During the last half century, in spite of war and earthquake, 

 the Museum has had a steady growth, until it is to-day the 

 largest museum in the South. In recent years however, the 

 overcrowding and insufficient lighting of the rooms and their 

 inaccessibility have prevented the Museum from serving the 

 public in proportion to its size and excellence and its support 

 has consequently dwindled until, in 1904, City Council appro- 

 priated but $250 for its maintenance. Serious deterioration 

 having already set in, this diminished support spelled extinc- 

 tion for these collections in which many thousand dollars of 

 public and private money had been invested during more than 

 a century. 



The following year, however, in response to the plans of the 

 present Director of the- Museum for the reclamation of the 

 collections and their utilization for public instruction, City 

 Council generously increased the appropriation. But active 

 work was no sooner commenced than the entire lack of space 

 for preparation and storage of specimens as well as the de- 

 ficiencies of the exhibition rooms' made it clear that larger and 

 better quarters were necessary if the proper mission of the 

 Museum was to be fulfilled. 



The New Building 



As these pages go to press arrangements are being concluded 

 whereby the City has leased, at a nominal rental, the building 

 now known as the Thomson Auditorium for the uses of the 

 Museum. The buiWing is situated in Cannon Park on Rut- 

 ledge Ave., and is accessible by street car lines from all parts 

 of the city. It will afford about 35,000 square feet of floor 

 space for exhibition and as much more for offices, library, 

 reading room, storage and preparation rooms, laboratories, 

 and lecture rooms. The consummation of these plans provides 

 for the suitable utilization of this building, erected in 1899 

 with funds bequeathed to the City by the late John Thomson, 

 Esq., whose memory will be perpetuated by a tablet to be placed 



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