To the Council of the City and County 

 of Bristol. 



The Report of the Museum Committee. 



'Review of tbe l^ear. 



HffiElX presenting their annual report to the Council, 

 HUai the Museum Committee are glad to be able to 

 record evidences of the continued growth and usefulness of 

 the Institution. It is now nine years since the Institution 

 was transferred to the Corporation, and the Committee 

 have endeavoured during that period to justify the 

 expectations that were generally formed at the time of 

 the transfer. The increasing attendance of students and 

 visitors, the evident pleasure with which the objects are 

 viewed, and the educational value which is now attached 

 to the collections, are all matters for congratulation. It 

 is probably not too much to assume that the two chief 

 events of the year, which will be referred to at greater 

 length later on, namely the enlargement of Sir William 

 Henry Wills' munificent offer of the Art Gallery portion 

 of the new building, by which enlargement the offer was 

 made to include also the Museum extension on the 

 ground floor (see page 8J ; and the gift by Lady Smyth 

 of the Natural History collections formed by the late Sir 

 Greville Smyth (see page 10), were in themselves an 



