1 2 Report of the President. 



Board. A complete report of the opening exercises has been 

 incorporated in this report. 



Transportation. — The courteous aid extended in the past to 

 our field parties has been continued by the following railroads: The 

 Southern Pacific, the Wabash, and Missouri Pacific, the Union 

 Pacific, the Canadian Pacific and trans-Pacific connections, the 

 Chicago & Northwestern, and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the 

 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Denver & Rio Grande, the 

 Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Northern Pacific. 



Attendance. — The number of visitors during the year was 

 523,522, an increase of 65,071 above the record for 1899. The 

 Museum was closed in the evening during the summer season for 

 the purpose of making repairs to the electric lighting plant. 



Your attention was directed in the report of last year to the 

 largely increased use of the Museum's material by classes from 

 public and private schools. The record for the year shows that 

 5,302 teachers and scholars availed themselves of the privilege of 

 studying the collections. 



Certain classes in the public schools of this city are now per- 

 mitted by the Board of Education to visit the Museum during 

 recitation hours to examine the collections in connection with 

 their daily studies. 



Accessions. — I invite your attention to the long list of acces- 

 sions in the later pages of this report. Of special note is the gift 

 of the Andrew Ellicott Douglas Collection of Prehistoric Indian 

 Relics. Mr. Douglas has been engaged in forming this collection 

 since 1887. He began with a single find of forty-five objects, and 

 now his collection numbers twenty-three thousand specimens. 

 The collection is complete in itself, and is of unique scientific 

 value. Many of the specimens are of exquisite beauty, and the 

 terms of gift provide for the preservation of its integrity as a 

 collection. 



Mr. Fordham Morris has presented the Trustees with a large 

 portrait of the late John J. Audubon, the naturalist, painted by 

 his sons, John and Victor. This has been placed in the reading 





