Annual Reports 



«3 



Davis. At this point Mr. Howard H. Cleaves photographed Dr. Britton, 

 Dr. Hollick, and Mr. Davis standing before the cornerstone that was to 

 be laid. 



Wm. T. Davis 



Arthur Hollick 



N. L. Britton 



The president then spoke of the valuable work of Dr. John Quincy 

 Adams, assistant secretary of the Art Commission of the City of New 

 York in soliciting and obtaining the funds for the erection of the build- 

 ing, and called up Doctor Adams to speak. Doctor Adams spoke as 

 follows : 



The finance committee which solicited subscriptions for the building 

 fund found among all those visited a generous interest and sympathy 

 with the enterprise. Even those who did not feel that they could con- 

 tribute manifested a lively interest in our new building. This cordial re- 

 ception which we everywhere met gave us great encouragement and was 

 a factor in our success. It was only by continuous effort that the neces- 

 sary amount of subscriptions was secured within the time limit. We 

 appreciated of course that Mr. Willcox made his generous offer not for 

 the purpose of arousing competition but with the thought that the people 

 of the island should be given an opportunity to contribute to the new 

 museum building. His offer was made with the condition that an equal 

 amount be subscribed by others before May first, which gave us over 

 seven months. 



It was a long struggle and as you know, the work fell mostly on the 

 committee. In the latter part of April it looked as though we might not 

 succeed in securing the required amount but we never lost our courage. 

 We believed Mr. Willcox would extend the time if asked to do so but 

 we were too proud to ask him. 



We had many interesting experiences but perhaps the most interesting 

 came on the last day when two of us made a trip to Brooklyn to the fac- 

 tory of a gentleman at whose office we had called several times and failed 

 to find him in. After we told him our object we said that we still lacked 

 $310 to complete the amount. He said " I will make it up " and turned 

 to his desk and wrote out the check. 



