The American Museum of Natural History 



Its Work, Membership, and Publications 



The American Museum of Natural History wns rdiimlcd mid iiicdi'puiMtcd in 

 liSGJl for tln' pur}iosi' of olalilisliiiiL;' a .Musciiiii and l.ilirary of Xatiiral Jlistoi'y; 

 of encoura<i-in^- and dov('l<>|iiim ilir study (d' Xalni'al Scifiicc : of advancinii; tlio 

 general knowledge of l<indiTd sniijects. and Id thai end. (d' fni'nislung popnlai' 

 in^^truetion. 



The ^Museum huilding is ei-ccted and largely maintaincij hy New \nrk City, 

 funds derived from issues (d' coi'porate stoi'k proxiding f(ir the const laut ion of sec- 

 tions from time to time and also for cases, wliile an annual a})propriation is made 

 for heating, lighting, the rejiair of the huikling and its general care and super- 

 vision. 



The Museum is open free to the public every day in the year; on week days 

 from II A.M. to .') P.M.. on Sunda\-s fr(jm 1 to ."> i'..\i. 



Tile .Museum not only niaintains exlnl)its in anthropology and natui'al Idstory, 

 including the famous habitat groups, designed especially to interest and instruct 

 the public, but also its library of TO, 000 volumes on natural history, ethnology 

 and travel is used by the p\dtlic as a reference lil)raiT. 



The educational work of the Museum is carried on also by inimerons lectures 

 to children, special series of lectures to the Ijlind, provided for by the Thorne 

 Memorial Fund, and the issue to public schools of collections and lantern slides 

 illustrating various branches of nature study. There are in addition special series 

 of evening lectures for Members in the fall and spring of each 3'ear, and on Satur- 

 day mornings lectures for the children of Members. Among those who have 

 appeared in these lecture courses are Admiral Peary, Dean Worcester, Sir John 

 Murray, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Prince of Monaco, and Theodore Eoosevelt. 

 The following are the statistics for the year 1917 : 



Attendance in Exhibitiou Halls T86,151 



Attendance at Lectures 11. 5, 803 



Lantern Slides Sent out for L^se in Schools 63,111 



School Children Reached l)y Xature Study Collections . . . 1,104,456 



Membership 



For the purchase or collection of specimens and their preparation, for research, 

 publication, and additions to the library, the ]\[usenm is dependent on its endow- 

 ment fund and its friends. The latter contril)ute either l>y direct subscriptions 

 or through the fund derived from the dues of ^Members, and this Membership 

 Fund is of particular importance from the fact that it may be devoted to such 

 purposes as the Trustees nuiy deem most importaid. including the ])ul)lication of 

 the JouRXAL. There are now more than four thousand Meudx'rs of the Museum 

 who are contriluiting to this work. If you believe that the ]\Iuseum is doing a use- 

 ful service to science and to education, the Trustet's invite you to lend youi- sup- 

 port by becoming a Meml)er. 



