18 Report of the President 



It is also desirable to offer the City and the State of New 

 York an opportunity to erect the Main Central Building of the 

 eastern f agade, facing Central Park, as a memo- 

 Memorial to rial to THEODORE ROOSEVELT, both as 

 Roosevcft Governor of the State of New York and as 



President of the United States. If the erection 

 of such a Memorial by the City and State shall meet with 

 popular approval, and shall have the support of the Governor 

 of the State and of the Mayor of the City of New York, the 

 Trustees may well surrender all plans for using this building 

 for exhibition purposes, although it will adjoin the Asiatic Hall 

 on the south and the African Hall on the west, the latter espe- 

 cially connected with Theodore Roosevelt's life as an explorer 

 and naturalist. 



Theodore Roosevelt's father in 1869 brought together the 

 group of men who founded the Museum. Theodore Roosevelt 

 himself spent hours of his boyhood in the Museum and in the 

 closing years of his life led the Museum's expedition to South 

 America and made important contributions not only to our col- 

 lections but to our scientific publications. This Memorial would 

 inspire the youth of America with Roosevelt's great example as 

 a nature lover, naturalist, explorer and exponent of the great 

 lessons which nature has to teach us. 



A summary of the general progress of the Museum in the 

 last fifty years shows that the great Museum building projected 



in 1870 is about one- fourth completed; that dur- 

 Progress of { n g this period the Trustees, Members and 



friends of the Museum have contributed gifts 

 and collections valued at $7,250,000, while the contributions to 

 the Permanent Endowment Fund have been $7,322,707. In 

 the meantime, the taxpayers of the City of New York have con- 

 tributed $5,318,820 for building and $4,241,492 for mainte- 

 nance. The General or Unrestricted Endowment, which may 

 he devoted to the general progress of the Museum, is now 

 approximately $1,300,000, while during the last year and a 

 half additional bequests to the institution for general purposes 

 amount to $2,105,000, including Mrs. Russell Sage's bequest of 

 $1,600,000. It is fortunate that the full amount of these be- 



