General Summary 117 



SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF THE MUSEUM 

 DURING THE YEAR 1921 



The constructive work of the year 1921 will become ap- 

 parent in future years. The entire plans of the Museum, 

 from top to bottom, have been restudied and submitted to 

 careful and critical examination by the Trustees and by the 

 members of the Scientific Staff. We desire so far as possible 

 to avoid mistakes in design, and, in recommending to the City 

 and to our generous citizens the seven proposed new build- 

 ing sections which will cost not less than $9,000,000 when 

 equipped, we hope to provide for an ideal American Museum 

 Building. 



In such a building, the American Museum ideals set forth in 

 the early pages of this report may be carried out. It is evident 

 that Astronomy will be the central feature of our plan because 

 all the processes of earth's history and all the processes of life 

 center around original astronomic causes. Astronomy, at the 

 moment, is the most inspiring of all the sciences. It makes the 

 greatest appeal to the imagination; it gives man a sense of his 

 own insignificance and dependence upon higher powers. 



We are confident that within the next decade, perhaps within 

 the next five years, plans for an Astronomic Hall, which were set 

 forth by the President in his History, Plan and Scope of The 

 American Museum of Natural History in 1910, received by the 

 Trustees February 14, 1910, and confirmed by the Trustees at 

 several successive annual meetings, will be realized. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Henry Fairfield Osborn, 

 President. 



