236 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



cleaning before placing them on exhibition, the preparation of this ex- 

 hibit occupied all of my spare time for several days. Beside these two 

 large exhibits several smaller ones were arranged and a general super- 

 vision kept over the condition of the contents and labels of all the cases. 

 This is a very necessary part of curatorial work in the present building, 

 where there is so much dust, owing to the generally shabby condition of 

 woodwork, etc. 



Practically a month of work was put in, scattered through the year, on 

 the herbarium. The Davis collection of California plants has been com- 

 pletely mounted, including labels written for the 482 specimens. Two 

 other smaller collections, given in exchange by the New York Botanical 

 Garden, have also been mounted. Herbarium sheets have been distributed 

 and catalog cards written for a number of specimens which were still un- 

 cataloged, so that at date the herbarium may be said to be as nearly in 

 shape as it is possible for any constantly increasing collection to be. 



It is perhaps unnecessary to repeat that a certain part of each day is 

 taken up with attending to visitors, answering questions, both in person 

 and by telephone, assisting visitors in the library, etc. Since January i the 

 lack of an upstairs guard has been seriously felt, and it is not possible to 

 accomplish much work on the afternoons when a constant stream of chil- 

 dren is pouring through the rooms. For this reason it has not been pos- 

 sible to start any of the new lines of work which are being carried on 

 with such success in our neighboring museums with the children visitors. 



Records of Museum Attendance May i,, 1916, to Apkil 30, 1917 

 Month Open days Number of visitors Daily average 



May, 1916 27 1,242 46 



June 26 1,46s 56 -f 



July 26 925 35 + 



August 27 993 36 + 



September 26 1,058 40 + 



October 24^ 1,410 57 + 



November 26 1,849 71 + 



December 26 1,234 47 + 



January, 1917 27 1,905 70 + . 



February 24 1,866 81 + 



March 27 1,683 62 + 



April 25 1,741 . 69 + 



Total 3113^ Total 17,361 M'thlyav. 1,446 + 



The attendance during the fiscal year just ended was the highest for 

 any year since the museum was opened to the public, showing an increase 

 of 2,909 over that of the last fiscal year. The highest monthly attendance, 

 1,905, during January, and the highest daily attendance, 343, on January 

 19, were also the highest of such averages recorded for the museum. 



