Report of the President 9 1 



The very popularity of certain lectures or lecturers, notably 



Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, has led to the serious embarrass- 



ment of the Museum officials and the great 



discomfort and disappointment of many 

 Auditorium __ „. , - , . , . 



Members. Inis has emphasized the neces- 

 sity of a larger auditorium, which has been included in the 

 building program recommended by the Trustees. The seating 

 capacity of the present auditorium is 1,500. The total num- 

 ber of Members is now more than 3,600 and under the By-Laws 

 at least two tickets for each lecture must be sent to each Mem- 

 ber. This inevitable distribution of tickets in excess of the 

 seating capacity of the auditorium rarely causes embarrass- 

 ment, the average attendance at a lecture being less than 1,000. 

 Indeed, in the last ten years, although more than two hundred 

 lectures have been given for Members, there were only five in- 

 stances in which it was necessary to turn Members away. The 

 experiences at the recent lecture by Colonel Roosevelt, how- 

 ever, lead us to believe that it would perhaps be more satis- 

 factory to Members if special tickets were issued and distributed 

 to Members only on application, in cases when it was probable 

 that the attendance would be too large for the auditorium. 



The Trustees felt that the original incorporators of the 



Museum were entitled to a class of Membership by themselves. 



_ Consequently at the May meeting they amended 



JN e^v L^is.sses ,_,,..- . . , 



, the Constitution, thereby creating a class des- 



of Members ^ ' ' t & 



ignatea as .bounders. Of the seventeen who 



constituted this group of Founders, the Honorable Joseph H. 

 Choate is the sole survivor remaining on the Board. At the 

 same time the Trustees created a class of Members to be des- 

 ignated Associate Founders. Any person contributing $25,000 

 is eligible for election to this class. 



During the year, there has been a small but, under the cir- 

 cumstances, gratifying increase in the number of Members. 



_ _ The actual number of new Members enrolled 



Status of 



__ , . . was 316, but as the loss through death and 

 Membership . .' , f , 



resignation was 243, the record shows a net 



gain of 73. On December 31, 1914, the total membership was 



3,669, divided into classes as follows: 



