STUDIES ON mmsp:itms and kindrkd institutions. 417 



free; on other days there is a charj^e of 25 eeiits for adults and for 

 children 10 cents. The pupils of the elementary and secondary public 

 schools always have free admission. Umbrellas and walking- sticks 

 must be left at the entrance and a fee of 5 cents is chari^ed for check- 

 ing. The annual average attendance for the past five years has been 

 250,000. In 1898-99 the number of visitors was 223,801; in 1899-1900, 

 266,899;'^ 21,117 and 28,110 of whom paid admission fees, and on the 

 pa}^ days there were also admitted free 9,711 and 15,210 during those 

 years. On Saturdays there came 51,190 and 50,717, and on Sundays 

 137,053 and 166,856. The highest numbers on any single day were 

 6,709 and 6,839; and the minimum, in 1898-99, was 5. I am convinced 

 that the number of visitors would be much greater if the museum were 

 more accessible. From. the central portion of the city, it takes an hour 

 and a half by carriage, or half an hour by the electric or elevated roads, 

 to reach the vicinity; or by rapid-transit road, running along the lake 

 shore, ten minutes. For most visitors, however, it means a da\"\s trip, 

 foi' the cit}' of Chicago covers 187 square miles.'' Surely the number 

 of museum visitors would also be increased if the entrance fee was 

 abandoned. In 1898-99 the fees amounted to not more than one- 

 twentieth of the entire budget, the average attendance on the 260 pay 

 days being only 82 persons, while in 1899 and 1900 this average was 

 1 OS visitors for whom the entire apparatus of surveillance must be 

 put in operation and the entire collection be submitted to the injurious 

 influence of light. Thus it happens that a greater number of persons 

 annually visit the incomparably smaller museum of the Academy of 

 Sciences in Lincoln Park (see below), which allows free admission and 

 is centrally located. In 1897 a patron of the nuiseum endeavored to 

 make it useful also for public instruction, and to excite the interest of 

 youth, b}' offering forty prizes of from $5 to $5(», amounting in all to 

 about $300, to the pupils in the public schools of Illinois, for the best 

 essay of 2,000 to 3,000 words, made without assistance, describing the 

 museum or single portions of it. The result was " very satisfactorv" 

 and the attendance to the nmseum naturall}' increased.'' 



" The American jMuBeum of Natural History in New York was visited in 1899 by 

 4oS,451 person?; in 1900 by 528,522 persons. (See also p. 330.) 



''It has three streets tliat are each 25 miles lonjr, or as far as from Dresden to 

 Schivndau. Berlin covers 36 square miles. From this, considering tiie approxi- 

 mately equal population— 1,700,000— an idea can be obtained of the scattered arran<re- 

 ment of the greater part of Chicago. Dresden covers 18 square miles for a popula- 

 tion of 500,000. 



''See Publication No. 24, Report series, I, No. 3, p. 197 for 1897. Details of the results 

 have not been published. There were about 70 essays handed in. The Carnegie 

 Museum in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a new and very active institution, for which a 

 great future is in store, has, since 1896, offered annually a prize competition, and has 

 rep(*rted upon it in several publications which are of unusual interest, the last time in 

 Publication No. (5 of the mu.«eum entitled "Prize essay contest, 1899, 32 pages, with 5 



NAT MIS 1903 27 



