328 rp:i'()rt of national museum, 1903. 



<n-tv, since ho rooai'tls it as bolont»-ino- to him personally, whereas here 

 in (Icrinany, the authorities as proprietors antagonize the visitor, who 

 is treated more or less as an intruder, and deports himself in an unas- 

 sumino" manner. 



From the t'oreg-oing- it will be seen that the Americans assign a lead- 

 ing part in the activity of their museums to the exhibition collections, 

 which they arrange for wide circles of the educated, half -educated, 

 and uneducated classes. At the same time, they foster the interests 

 even of little children, and try to stimulate the older ones by offering- 

 prizes; they make the museums contribute directly to the cause of 

 education by series of lectures, by popular publications, and by lend- 

 ing collections; and they keep the doors of their museums open to 

 everybody from morning till evening. How far all this could be 

 adapted to German conditions is a question which ought to be discussed 

 in a separate article. 



I.— THE CITY OF NKW YORK. 



[Population 8,440,000, or, including its surroundings, 1,000,000 inhabitants.] 

 1. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



In comparison with other cities of the Union, New York was very 

 slow in organizing a natural history museum, but when, in the year 

 1869, it was decided to establish one, a project on the grandest scale of 

 all was adopted and collecting was inunediately begun in a compre- 

 liensiA^e wa3^ 



The building occupies a detached position alongside of Central Park 

 near great business streets, and has a richly molded fayade of red brick, 

 syenite, and granite, with towers, jutties, balconies, roofs, etc., in mod- 

 ern Romanesque style, approaching the French castle type, which was 

 introduced into P^ngland some decades ago. This style has flourished in 

 the United States chiefly through the influence of the architect Rich- 

 ardson. The museum serves for anthropology, ethnography, arche- 

 ology, zoology, paleontology, geology, mineralogy, and botany. The 

 architects were, and still are, Vaux, Cady, Berg, and See. The inner 

 building, 183 feet long, G5 feet wide, and 101 feet high, the first to be 

 completed, was occupied in 1877. The existing collections were in the 

 meantime accommodated in the old arsenal in Central Park. The 

 height of the first floor is 18' feet; the second and third floors are 

 together 30 feet, consisting in reality of only one floor and a gallery, 

 the latter with a separate row of windows; the fourth floor 22 feet; 

 and the fifth, 16 feet. The dimensions of the halls are 85 by 85, 155 

 l)y 75, 172 by 90, and 183 by 65 feet. In America they still reckon 

 by feet, equal to 0.305 meter. 



About one-sixth of the projected building is now erected. The 

 entire building when completed, which may not be for generations, 



