Report of the President 39 



Four important Handbooks and two Leaflets are ready for 

 publication whenever funds are available. Two of these, the 

 Indians of Manhattan and Trees and Forestry, are much 

 needed, as they were among the most called for of the 

 various leaflets, and it is intended to issue them as Handbooks. 



The Southwest Tower room, third floor, which is not 



. only an office but the home of the 



, _ , . New York Entomological Society, has 



and Alterations „ b , J \ 



been partitioned off and painted, so 



that it is now a very pleasant meeting room. 



An emergency cloak room has been built in the West Cor- 

 ridor, and extensive and important changes have been made 

 in the basement workshops to accommodate new machines and 

 to facilitate the execution of carpenter and metal work. 



The minor work, which after all is really the major part of 

 the work, such as constructing bases, frames and mounts, 

 alteration of cases and improvements in installations, has 

 gone steadily forward, but, owing to the failure of the city to 

 make an appropriation for construction, there has been less 

 case work than usual, and work has not begun on additional 

 and much needed storage rooms. Cases have been made, 

 however, for four habitat groups, and for extending six large 

 pier cases for fossil vertebrates, and eighteen metal frame 

 cases of different types have been built. In the way of pro- 

 viding for material, 2,250 standard trays and 500 glazed trays 

 for insects have been made. As an illustration of the economy 

 of having the work done in the building, it may be mentioned 

 that $1,250 was saved on these insect trays alone. 



Another lantern slide case with 120 drawers and holding 

 12,000 slides has been finished, but two more are needed to 

 complete the work of classifying the slides. 



As far as the limited funds would permit, the old lights in 

 the exhibition halls have been replaced with tungsten lamps 

 in new fixtures, but until this work is completed the building 

 cannot be lighted throughout and a part of the lighting even 

 then will be somewhat unsatisfactory owing to the location of 

 the old lights. We are in receipt of continued complaints 

 from visitors of lack of light on winter afternoons and on 



