PREFACE 



The purpose of this Guide, which owes its idea and incep- 

 tion to President Henry Fairfield Osborn of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, is to render accessible under 

 one cover an account of the public scientific institutions of 

 New York City which are built and supported by public 

 funds in cooperation with the benefaction and direction of 

 individual citizens. This union of municipal and private 

 endeavor in the cause of Public Education is unique. 



The Guide is designed to be brief enough to permit of 

 easy reading and at the same time sufficiently detailed and 

 descriptive to give an adequate idea of the collections these 

 institutions contain and of their importance as educational 

 factors. The visitor is thus enabled to choose from the 

 exhibits of any or all of the Museums, Parks and Gardens 

 those in which he is most interested and to proceed directly 

 to them, or to plan a survey as a whole with a minimum 

 waste of time and effort. Rearrangements of the collec- 

 tions which are liable to take place in the near future have 

 been anticipated as far as possible at the time of writing. 



