Report of the President 83 



are also indebted to the United States Forest Service for a 

 collection of 71 hand specimens of native woods. 



In addition to the department work, the editorship of the 

 American Museum Journal has been carried on during the year. 



THE LIBRARY 



DEPARTMENT OF BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS 



Ralph W. Tower, Curator 



The year just passed marks another period of growth and 

 progress in the library, for not only has it been possible to add 

 many important and valuable works to the collections but 

 opportunity has been found for the reclassification and recata- 

 loguing of the books relating to evolution, physiology, ana- 

 tomy and anthropology. In anthropology it was considered 

 necessary to adopt a classification which would more thoroughly 

 represent the methods and ideas of the scientist working in 

 that subject, and the result has been the evolution and 

 adoption of an eminently satisfactory schedule in which the 

 ordinary political geographical divisions have been replaced 

 by geographical culture areas. 



The total number of books and pamphlets in the Museum 

 Library, including the Osborn Library of Vertebrate Palaeon- 

 tology, is 65,000. 



The most important and also the most valuable accessions 

 have again been made by the patronage of Mr. Anson W. 

 Hard, whose interest in the library will always be reflected in 

 the many rare and classical treatises received through his 

 generosity. The following are especially acknowledged: 

 Exploration Scientifique de V Alger ie pendant les Annees 1840- 

 1842, a set of thirty-eight volumes which is wholly out of 

 print and of extreme rarity; Illustrations of Diurnal Lepidop- 

 tera, 1862-1878, by W. C. Hewitson, a treatise essential to 

 the work of all lepidopterologists; Trees of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, 1913, by Elwes and Henry, seven volumes privately 

 printed and admirably illustrated; Voyage Pittoresque et His- 

 torique au Bre'sil depuis 1816 jusquen 1831, 1 834-1 839, by J. B. 

 Debret, three folio volumes illustrating the manners and cus- 

 toms of the people; Voyage to New Guinea and the Moluccas 



