68 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Treasurer’s orders and checks. The amount covered by the 
various accounts and disbursements named above aggregated 
more than $175,000.00. 
But one important change was made in the Chief Clerk’s force 
during the year—that of Assistant. Mr. Charles F. Dickinson, 
who had satisfactorily filled the position for eighteen months, re- 
signed on November first to go into business for himself. Mr. 
William Mitchell, Jr.. was engaged to fill the vacancy, and 
assumed the duties on the first of November. Mr. Mitchell is 
well fitted for the position, and comes to us with a number of 
years of active experience in office work. 
“Several important changes have been made during the year 
in the manner of rendering bills to the City for reimbursement, 
which have resulted in greatly facilitating their payment. 
DEPARTMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY.—Elwin R. Sanborn, Photog- 
rapher and Assistant Editor of Publications. 
The Zoological Society has entered seriously upon the work 
of collecting photographic records of its animals, both for present 
and future use. It is now a fixed policy that whenever a rare 
animal arrives, especially one which is new to the Zoological 
Park, it is the duty of the Photographer, and also the curators 
and keepers, to secure good photographs of it at the earliest 
moment practicable. 
In pursuance of this policy the Society has provided Mr. 
Sanborn with two workrooms, a modest outfit of cameras and 
lenses, and has also equipped a special studio for indoor work. 
Already several hundred negatives of mammals, birds, and rep- 
tiles have been taken, a set of index albums has been made, and 
prints are on sale at a small profit above the cost of making 
them. 
In order to control this valuable material the photographs are 
copyrighted, and the choicest pictures are reserved for first ap- 
pearance in the publications that are issued for the benefit of 
the members of the Society. The Society shares with the public 
the right to reproduce its photographs, but is obliged to make a 
small charge, according to the material used, as a partial return 
of the cost involved. Already many publishers of books, maga- 
zines, and newspapers have availed themselves of the Society’s 
photographic materials. 
Those who are unacquainted by personal experience with the 
difficulties to be surmounted in obtaining a good photograph of 
a wild animal have not the faintest conception of the cost of 
