activities. For example, in 1959 and 1960, the Stix, Baer and Fuller 
Company gave a total of $30,000 to help pay for the school visit pro- 
gram and for ‘‘Operation Explore.’’ In 1961 Famous Barr, Morton May, 
and the Beaumont Foundation gave $40,000 for an exhibit. The next 
year General Motors gave $2,000 to the museum. Among the dona- 
tions for 1963 was a $1,000 gift from the St. Louis Rotary Club, which 
helped pay for visits made by museum staff and volunteers to hospitals. 
In the following year the St. Louis Dental Society presented the Academy 
with $2,000 for an exhibit on teeth. !2 
Grants from foundations made up another major percentage of the 
Academy’s revenues. The most significant grants came from the Albert 
P. Greensfelder Trust, which awarded $45,000 in 1959 to help found 
the museum and $55,000 in 1962 to maintain it.'? The next year the 
Beaumont Foundation awarded a $25,000 challenge grant which Strat- 
ford Lee Morton matched. The money was used to pay for the ‘Hall 
of Evolution,’’ which was dedicated to the memory of Morton’s son 
who died in World War II. One of the Academy’s most consistent sources 
of grant money was the National Science Foundation, which awarded 
major grants to the Academy in support of science education throughout 
the 1960s. 
Additional money came to the Museum from a small admission 
charge, membership dues, gift shop sales, fund-raising events, and from 
yearly fund-raising campaigns coordinated by the Greater St. Louis Area 
Arts Council.!4 The Arts Council was formed in 1963 to promote cultural 
activities in St. Louis. The Council consisted of twenty-eight members 
in three categories, but only ten institutions were Fund Members. Each 
year after 1963 the Council conducted a massive fund-raising drive to 
provide the Fund Members with money for operating expenses. By join- 
ing the Arts Council as a Fund Member in 1963, the Museum of Science 
and Natural History became eligible for $55,200 for its operating budget. 
Funds for exhibits, acquisitions, and equipment still had to be raised 
through other means, however.'* 
The Academy seemed destined to meet the financial challenges of 
running its museum. For the first two years it managed to come in under 
budget. In the next three, however, it ran a deficit of $34,000.'° The 
Academy’s financial situation was summarized in 1964 by Donn Brazier, 
who explained that the coming year would be “a sustaining rather than 
an expanding one because of our uncertain financial position.’’!7 
The Academy and its Museum remained on a shaky financial 
ground for the rest of the decade. Nevertheless, the staff persevered 
in developing new exhibits, the collections grew, education programs 
prospered, and the Women’s Division continued to actively support the 
Museum. 
59 
