REPORT OF THE 
DIRECTOR OF THE AQUARIUM 
TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. 

T HE year 1917 is the fifteenth in the history of the Aquarium 
under the management of the Zoological Society, and the 
twentieth since its inception. 
While the institution has always had the patronage of the 
people to a degree quite unusual among public museums, it has 
not received official support commensurate with its popularity, 
its actual field of work and its possibilities for greater usefulness. 
The unprepossessing external appearance which the Aqua- 
rium presents to the visitor is due to the fact that it is housed 
in an old and inadequately cared for building. It remains the 
same unsightly structure that it has been for the past one hun- 
dred years. Its interior aspect is better, and the structural de- 
fects of the building are largely overlooked in the presence of 
its admirable and extensive living exhibits. 
The Aquarium must, by reason of its great interest for the 
public, be classed as a public museum, and its staff has always 
been under the necessity of performing duties similar to those 
of curators in such museums. The fact cannot be overlooked 
that its work has hitherto been carried on under such serious 
disadvantages as lack of exhibition and office space and facilities 
for collecting and caring for its exhibits. 
The space devoted to exhibits reached its full capacity years 
ago, so that reasonable growth of its collections has been alto- 
gether impossible. 
The inadequacy of the building to the work required of the 
Aquarium has not been due to lack of well prepared plans for 
its improvement. The needs of the Aquarium have been recog- 
