FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT 



To the Trustees of The American Museum of Natural History 

 and to the City of New York 



THE COMING FIFTY YEARS 



BY 



President Henry Fairfield Osborn 



"Upon the subject of Education, not presuming to dictate any plans 

 or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most 

 important subject which we, as a people, can be engaged in." 



— Lincoln's First Public Speech, March gth, 1832. 



Our fiftieth annual report (1869-1918) was chiefly retro- 

 spective. The development of the Museum since its 

 foundation was seen to coincide with the period in which 

 man 1 has learned that he is a part of nature, that his 

 spiritual, moral and physical welfare depends on obedience 

 to natural laws ; that from the religious point of view natural 

 laws are divine laws. The American Museum was founded 

 for an educational purpose clearly expressed in our Charter 

 of 1869: 



"for the purpose of establishing and main- 

 taining IN SAID CITY A MUSEUM AND LIBRARY OF 



Natural History; of encouraging and develop- 

 ing THE STUDY OF NATURAL SCIENCE ; OF ADVANC- 

 ING THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF KINDRED SUBJECTS, 

 AND TO THAT END OF FURNISHING POPULAR INSTRUC- 

 TION." 



We are developing this kind of education along many 

 old and many new lines. Rather than theories or hypo- 



1 In 1863 was published Lyell's great work "The Geological Evidences of the 

 Antiquity of Man." In 1871 appeared Darwin's "Descent of Man." 



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