Annual Reports 41 



railing at the side of the front steps, and it is now my pleasure to report 

 that Mrs. Davis has presented the Association with a new mowing machine 

 to replace the one provided about five years ago by the city. 



Administration and Maintenance 



The organization of the work of the museum is probably now as satis- 

 factory as can be expected with the means at our disposal. The care of 

 the building and the safeguarding of the building and contents is in the 

 general charge of the janitor, night watchman, and two museum guards. 

 The arrangement and care of the collections, and the administrative and 

 educational work, is divided between the curator-in-chief and the two 

 curators. 



No exact line of demarkation or limitation in the work of any individual 

 is possible with our small number of employees and, on occasion, any one 

 may be called upon to attend to duties ordinarily performed by another. 

 I am not aware of any other institution in which exactly such conditions 

 obtain, and the fact that in every such instance the duties were performed 

 willingly and cheerfully occurs to me to be worthy of official recognition 

 and record. This is largely due to the present personnel of the employees 

 — ^janitor, night watchman, and museum guards — whose hours of duty it 

 is now possible, for the first time since the organization of the museum, to 

 make interchangeable. The curatorial staff has thus been relieved of con- 

 siderable worry, responsibility, and extra hours of duty. For the best 

 interests of the museum it is to be earnestly hoped that present conditions 

 may not be disturbed. 



A schedule of proposed vacations is appended. It may be noted that 

 provision is made for a two weeks' vacation for each of the curators, which 

 makes the schedule practically identical with that of last year. I have 

 not thought it advisable that any change should be made at this time, but 

 another year I would strongly urge that each member of the curatorial 

 staff be given a month's vacation, in accordance with the custom which 

 obtains in connection with all other museums. 



The diverse and multifarious duties performed in connection with our 

 museum by those who nominally hold the title of curator would doubtless 

 surprise anyone not cognizant of the facts. The regular accounting and 

 bookkeeping required by the city, in accordance with prescribed forms and 

 regulations must be kept up to date at all times, and facts and figures in 

 regard to city property and city funds must be accessible at a moment's 

 notice. Records and statistics of attendance must be kept and properly 

 filed ; correspondence on various matters answered and initiated ; acces- 

 sions acknowledged and entered; specimens catalogued and numbered ; and 

 then whatever time remains may be devoted to planning the arrangement 

 of the museum collections, identifying and labeling material, preparing 

 for lectures, etc. 



As a matter of fact, in order to secure the best results, the purely admin- 



