1 6 Report of the President 



Museum is in the position of a family that has outgrown its 

 home, of a business that has outgrown its offices, of a manu- 

 facturing concern that has outgrown its factory building, of a 

 college or university that has outgrown its halls and dormi- 

 tories. All available space of the present building, from attic 

 to basement, has been utilized and collections have been 

 retired from two large halls, formerly used for exhibition pur- 

 poses, in order to make provision for the care and preparation 

 of accumulating material. The Museum building is a large 

 one, but it is comparatively small when considered in relation 

 to the largest, wealthiest and most populous city in America, 

 such as New York has now become. As shown in the last 

 Annual Report, no city in the United States has public institu- 

 tions in which so much has been accomplished at so little cost 

 to the municipality. 



The most imperative need is the erection of the Southeast 

 Wing and Court Building, at an estimated cost of $750,000. 

 Plans of this building are published herewith. The need 

 for this building has become so pressing that it raises the 

 question as to whether it will not be wise to endeavor to 

 provide such a building through private subscription. There 

 is some doubt in the minds of the Trustees whether this may 

 not establish an undesirable precedent. In other words, 

 whether the donation of a building would not lead to the 

 relieving of the people of the City of New York of their 

 share of the responsibility and of their participation in the 

 agreement of 1878, and which up to recent years the City has 

 loyally observed. 



The inactive balance of $111,808.77 of tne f un ^ which was 



voted in 191 1 toward the construction of the new Southeast 



Wing and Court Building has been finally 



Case Construction, transferred to an Equipment Fund by the 



Maintenance Board of Estimate and Apportionment for 



purposes of case construction and equip- 

 ment for the present building. This transfer was recommended 

 by the Comptroller and officially approved by the signature of 

 Mayor Mitchel. The matter of case construction and equipment 

 had become as acute as is now the question of new building. 



