18 Report of the President 



for our own benefit and for the benefit of every country which 

 we may visit. The governments and scientific institutions of 

 all these countries are cooperating with us; specimens and scien- 

 tific literature are being freely exchanged, and the methods of 

 Museum and of Nature education, which we are developing 

 from originally European prototypes, are also going out to every 

 country. As a result, we are receiving the most cordial co- 

 operation — political, institutional and personal. Yet it appears 

 that we are only on the threshold of what may be accomplished 

 when the American Museum Building is complete, when every 

 continent and every natural division of the earth's surface are 

 represented. 



Indorsement by the City Government 

 The outstanding event of 1921 was the decision of the present 

 City Government to renew the building construction of The 

 American Museum of Natural History, which has been sus- 

 pended for the last sixteen years owing to financial depression, 

 to the suspension of all activities during the war, and to the 

 high cost of building following the war. On December 28, 1921, 

 the Board of Estimate and Apportionment voted unanimously 

 the sum of $1,500,000, which is believed to be sufficient to erect 

 Sections p and io of the building as planned in 1875, — the South- 

 east Wing on Central Park West, and the Southeast Court 

 Building. This leaves seven sections still to be erected to com- 

 plete the series of seventeen halls to be devoted to the natural 

 history of all parts of the world. 



It is entirely the public educational side of the Museum's work 

 which the City is supporting so liberally. The Museum serves 

 alike the schools of the five Boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, 

 Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, reaching a total in 1921 of 

 1,449,608 school children. There were in use 869 collections, and 

 the following schools were served regularly: 



Manhattan 183 



Bronx , 49 



Brooklyn 149 



Queens 73 



Richmond 23 



477 

 This is exclusive of the distribution of lantern slides, illus- 

 trating the work of the Museum in all parts of the world and 



