SO 
the dues of Contributing and Sustaining members, the remainder 
going in equal parts to the other two Departments of the Brook- 
Ivn Institute of Arts and Sciences, viz., the “Institute at the 
Academy of Music,’ and the Brooklyn Museum. 
These figures, discouragingly small for an institution located 
ina city of some 7,500,000, and a borough of more than 2,700,000 
population, indicate chiefly the effect of the financial depression 
that began in 1929, and the mounting burden of income taxes 
and other taxes, on the ability of the general public to take 
advantage of educational opportunities and to support institu- 
tions of general culture. They 
— 
aave also, no doubt, been affected 
adversely by the steadily increasing tendency of people to take 
advantage of the opportunity, made possible by the automobile, 
to move their residences from the city to the country. 
In connection with the endeavor of the Brooklyn Institute to 
increase membership, and especially Contributing membership 
(annual payment, $100), meetings have been held during the 
year under the auspices of each of the three Departments. 
The Botanic Garden meeting was held on the afternoon of 
Monday, February 17, in the Laboratory Building, under the 
auspices of the Woman’s Auxiliary, with the following program: 
Mrs. Henry J. Davenport, president of the Woman’s Auxiliary, 
chairman; Remarks by Dr. Gager; Address by Mr. E. L. D. 
Seymour, Garden Editor of The American Home, subject, 
‘Horticulture for Everybody.’ Address, Mrs. Tracy Voorhees, 
chairman of the Membership Committee of the Institute. 
Following the program there was an exhibition of Flower Ar- 
rangements in the main floor Rotunda, where tea was served. 
Sixteen new annual members and three sustaining members 
resulted from this event. 
PERSONNEL 
Mr. Philip A. Benson, who has been a member of the Board 
and of the Botanic Garden Governing Committee since June, 
1935, was, on June 12, 1941, made Vice-Chairman of the Com- 
mittee. This was in accordance with an amendment to Section 
3, Article IV, of the Constitution of the Brooklyn Institute of 
Arts and Sciences, adopted at the meeting of the Board on 
