4.6 Report of the President 



There is no suitable place for rough or heavy work and 

 absolutely no place where such work as skinning and roughly 

 preparing the skeletons of animals can be done without filling 

 the entire building with offensive odors. 



Even ordinary preparation work is carried on at a dis- 

 advantage, while some place for work and storage must be 

 provided before any extension of the West Central Wing can 

 take place. But for the fact that the West Court is filled to 

 the level of the first floor, the construction of such a building 

 would be comparatively inexpensive, especially in comparison 

 with the cost of an outer exhibition section. 



It would also probably be feasible to locate a badly needed 

 receiving and shipping room in this section until such time in 

 the future as this can be provided where it should be, in the 

 west center adjacent to Columbus Avenue. 



The building would also furnish space for the reception, 

 unpacking and preliminary work on the collections that from 

 time to time are received and must now be handled where 

 best they can. For example, in order to unpack and dis- 

 tribute the collections made by the Congo Expedition, it was 

 necessary to give up the hall occupied by the exhibits of 

 recent fishes, and these have been placed in the hall occupied 

 by the systematic series of birds, an affiliation that does not 

 add to the happiness of the officers of either the Department 

 of Birds or of Fishes. It is to be noted here that this is the 

 second hall in the past five years that owing to necessity has 

 been stripped of its exhibits and made into a workroom. 



Lack of an equipment fund has rendered it impossible to 

 keep up with the demand for storage, and there is a pressing 

 need for rooms for the ethnological collections and for scores 

 of cases for the material secured by the Congo Expedition 

 and that being constantly received from South America, as 

 well as for metal shelving for fishes and reptiles. It is hoped 

 that at least part of these may be provided for by the new 

 Equipment Fund. 



The Director can only repeat what he said last year, that 

 all members of the Museum force deserve the thanks of 

 Trustees and public for the manner in which the varied opera- 

 tions of the institution have been carried on, including not 



