<The 



STEINHART AQUARIUM 



SAN FRANCISCO 



It is expected that San Francisco will 

 soon have the most comprehensive and 

 best equipped aquarium in America. 



This has been made possible by the 

 late Ignatz Steinhart, who was one of 

 San Francisco's most prominent business 

 men and most honored citizens. Mr. 

 Steinhart had long contemplated estab- 

 lishing a public aquarium in San Fran- 

 cisco, as had his brother, Sigmund Stein- 

 hart, before him. When Sigmund Stein- 

 hart died, in 1910, he left a certain sum 

 with his brother with which to establish 

 an aquarium, should it be found feasible 

 to do so. Various and divers difficulties 

 arose, however, and the idea was prac- 

 tically abandoned. 



But, in 1916, soon after Dr. Barton 

 Warren Everman went from the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, in Washington, to San 

 Francisco to become the director of the 

 Museum of the California Academy of 

 Sciences, Dr. Everman discussed with 

 Mr. Steinhart the value to the public 

 that a great aquarium in San Francisco 

 would possess. As a result of these dis- 

 cussions, Mr. Steinhart's interest in the 

 matter revived. The one difficulty which 

 caused Mr. Steinhart to hesitate was that 

 presented by the question of control. 

 He felt that any management which 

 made political control possible should be 

 avoided. For that reason he would not 

 place it under city control. When he 

 was told that the New York aquarium, 

 originally under the Board of Park 

 Commissioners, was, upon the initiative 

 of the Park Commissioners themselves, 

 transferred to the New Zoological So- 



ciety, in order to free it of politics, the 

 city continuing to furnish the funds for 

 maintenance but having nothing what- 

 ever to do with the management, Mr. 

 Steinhart asked if the California Acad- 

 emy was not similar to the New York 

 Zoological Society in being entirely free 

 from political influences. When assured 

 that it is, he decided then and there to 

 give to the California Academy of Sci- 

 ences the funds for the building and 

 equipment. 



It was his wish that the aquarium 

 might be established and in operation in 

 his lifetime, but, to the very great regret 

 of the Academy and all California, this 

 was not to be; for Mr. Steinhart, after 

 only a few days' illness, died May 15, 

 1917. 



When the will was made public it was 

 learned that Mr. Steinhart had be- 

 queathed to the California Academy of 

 Sciences $250,000 for the erection and 

 completion of a public aquarium build- 

 ing upon the following conditions : 



(1) That the aquarium be located 

 in Golden Gate Park adjoining, or adja- 

 cent to, the Museum of the California 

 Academy of Sciences. (2) That the 

 control, management and superintend- 

 ence be under the California Academy 

 of Sciences. (3) That the city of San 

 Francisco supply to the California Acad- 

 emy of Sciences the funds adequate for 

 maintenance, and, (4) That the aqua- 

 rium be known as the Steinhart Aqua- 

 rium. 



Mr. Jesse W. Lillienthal, Jr., execu- 

 tor of the Steinhart estate, has recently 



