STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 381 



105 feet square, and accommodates 1,000 persons. A new lecture 

 room, 1.30 by 130 feet, desig-ned to accommodate 1,500 ])orsons, has 

 been completed. It is situated under tiie projected central tower. 

 These lectures were given by assistants in the museum, professors of 

 Columbia Univ^ersit}^ in New York, and other scholars. There is a 

 more extensive series, intended especially for teachers, for which the 

 State of New York appropriates $12,000. The entire series of lectures 

 in 1899 was attended by more than 66,000 persons, of whom 13,500 

 were teachers. There are also evening receptions and exhibitions of 

 scientific societies. 



The museum publishes annual reports (the thirty-first, for 1899, has 

 11 plates and 96 page.s); octavo bulletins, with scientific papers and 

 plates, of which 12 volumes have appeared; and quarto memoirs^ of 

 which 3 volumes are in print. There have also been published several 

 illustrated guides for certain departments; and an illustrated monthly, 

 The American Museum Journal, has been started. The museum 

 sends out series of scientific expeditions, which are constantly- bringing^ 

 in a mass of fresh material, including- valuable purchases. In the year 

 1899, 2 zoological, 3 paleontological, and 8 anthropological expeditions 

 were in progress. These 8 expeditions, devoted to the anthropological, 

 archeological, and ethnographical researches in the country, added to 

 the museum 50,000 specimens. 



The building- is fireproof, of brick and iron, the floors being covered 

 with tile and marble mosaic. The furniture is of wood. There are 

 almost 20,000 lineal feet of cases and desks, for the increase of which 

 an additional $75,000 was available in 1900. The plant for heating, ven- 

 tilating, and lighting is now in the cellar, but is, however, to be removed 

 to one of the courts on account of the marked shaking of the building. 

 This will require an expenditure of $40,000. The heating is by steam. 

 Ventilators, driven by steam power, force fresh air through the shafts 

 into the building. Electricity and gas afford illumination. The rooms 

 in the cellar and garret are spacious and light. Broad, slate-covered 

 iron steps, in well-iightcd staircases, lead from the })ottom to the top 

 of the building, but are little used, since large electric elevators, with 

 a capacity of fifteen persons each, are constantly going- up and down. 

 The architectural and color ornamentation of the interior is simple 

 throughout, often, one might say, scarcely present — a feature which 

 distinguishes this from many European museums in a most advanta- 

 geous manner. The painting of the interior is white or of a uniform 

 light color. 



Since the buildings as they now stand were erected separately during 

 a period of over twenty-five years, something was necessarily gained 

 by experience. The newer parts are more perfect than the older, 

 and there can be no doubt that the remaining five-sixths of the 

 nuiseum to be constructed will be still l)etter;. since in such a complex 

 mass of structures it is not necessary to maintain perfect uniformity in 



