FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



To the Trustees and Members of The American Museum of 

 Natural History, and to the Municipal Authorities of the 

 City of New York : 



The President has the honor to submit his eleventh Annual 

 Report, the forty-ninth in the history of the Museum, in what 

 he trusts will prove to be a new and more interesting form. It 

 is important to emphasize the fact that the Museum is pri- 

 marily an educational institution, local and national, and that 

 all exhibition, study, research and exploration, as well as the 

 accumulation of specimens and collections and of books in our 

 library, are contributory to this chief end — the diffusion of 

 light and learning for the advancement of true civilization. 



The plan set forth last year, that the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the foundation of the Museum, April 6, 19 19, should be cele- 

 brated by the opening of two new buildings, the Court of 

 Ocean Life and the Southeast Wing, facing Central Park, is 

 deferred because of the new conditions of economy and of 

 national service created by the war for liberty. 



In view of the stringency of the city's finances, several Trus- 

 tees and other friends of the Museum* had offered to contribute 

 $618,008 for these new buildings; in fact, the building plan 

 was announced (November 5, 1916), but on the declaration of 

 war with Germany (April 6, 1917), it was deemed wise to post- 

 pone building until the conclusion of the war. 



With the same patriotic purpose, the scientific staff of the 

 Museum voted (February 19, 1917) to suspend all the 

 explorations planned for the year and to organize the 

 Museum immediately for national service. The entire scientific 



* Mr. George F. Baker, Mr. R. Fulton Cutting, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, Dr. 

 James Douglas, Mr. George B. Hopkins, Mr. Archer M. Huntington, Mr. Adrian 

 Iselin, Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, Mr. A. D. Juilliard, Estate of Helen C. Juilliard, 

 Mr. Ogden Mills. 



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