1 6 Report of the President 



cational side, has been equally advanced through an unusually- 

 large number of expeditions in the field, forty-four all together, 

 engaged in exploration in every continent except Australia, 

 and bringing back collections and photographs of rare value, 

 which cannot be secured in any other way. The Museum 

 Journal, issued from October to May, has kept our Members 

 and the public fully informed of this most interesting feature 

 of the Museum's activities. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



On April 6, 1919, or seven years hence, the Museum will 

 celebrate the close of the first half-century of its chartered 

 existence. As the oldest institution of its kind in the City of 

 New York, it has furnished the precedent on which the other 

 institutions were established,' and it seems eminently fitting 

 that the occasion should be celebrated by the completion and 

 opening of the southern half of the great building projected in 

 1871. On May 8, 191 1, the Board of Trustees unanimously 

 recommended to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 

 that the southern half of the Museum, surrounding the two 

 south courts, be completed in 1919 in time to celebrate the 

 Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Museum. The 

 resolution was as follows: 



Resolved, That the Trustees hereby adopt the general features of 

 the ground plan for the extension of the Museum, as recommended 

 in the President's Plan and Scope Report, as approved by the Build- 

 ings and Plans Committee of 19 10 and as presented by the Buildings 

 and Plans Committee of ign. 



Resolved, That the Executive Committee is hereby empowered to 

 present this ground plan to the Board of Estimate and Apportion- 

 ment at their coming meeting as expressing the judgment of the 

 Trustees as to the wisest development of the Museum building 

 during the next decade. 



That the Trustees recommend to the Board of Estimate and 

 Apportionment the construction of the building surrounding the two 

 south courts, namely : 



1. Southeast Wing and Court 3. West Transept, 



Building of the East 4. East Transept, 



Facade, 5. East Facade Entrance, 



2. West Facade Entrance, 6. Central Rotunda, 



in time to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the 

 Museum in 1919, by the opening of the East Facade Entrance. 



That the Trustees recommend the immediate erection of the 

 Southeast Wing and Southeast Court Building. 



