32 Report of the President 



MEMBERSHIP AND STAFF 



In the opening part of this report a broader tribute was paid 



to our senior and most distinguished associate, the Honorable 



Joseph Hodges Choate, whose death occurred 



Service of on ]y[ ay j, 19 17. We may now record some- 



Joseph H. Choate . ' ., , , "L, , 



what more in detail Mr. Choate s great ser- 

 vices to the Museum : 



JOSEPH HODGES CHOATE 



was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on January 24, 1832, the 

 son of Dr. George and Margaret Manning (Hodges) Choate. 

 He graduated from Harvard College in 1852 with the 

 degree of A.B., and from the Harvard Law School in 1854. 

 He received the Honorary Degree of A.M. from Har- 

 vard in i860, and the Honorary Degree of LL.D. in 1888. 

 He also received the Honorary Degree of LL.D. from 

 Amherst in 1887, Edinburgh, 1900, Cambridge, 1900, Yale, 

 1901, St. Andrew's, 1902, Glasgow, 1904, Williams, 1905, Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, 1908, Union, 1909; and the degree of 

 D.C.L. from Oxford in 1902. He was admitted to the Bar in 

 Massachusetts in 1855, and in New York in 1856. He was 

 presiding officer of the State Constitutional Convention 

 of 1894; Ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1899 to 

 1905 ; representative of the United States at the Second Hague 

 Conference in 1907; leading representative and orator of the 

 City of New York on the occasion of the reception to the Com- 

 missions of Great Britain and of France, Wednesday, May 9, 

 and Sunday, May 13, 19 17. He passed away at his home in 

 New York City on the evening of Monday, May 14, 19 17. 



He was a member of the original group of citizens who 

 founded The American Museum of Natural History in 1869, 

 and he served the Museum as Counsel and Trustee during the 

 remainder of his life. 



