22 Report of the President 



balance of the previous appropriation, will be sufficient to con- 

 struct the Southeast Court Building only. This application is 

 now before the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. 



The figures on page 23 show that the annual contributions 

 from all sources to the growth of the Museum have increased 

 from $141,173.28 in 1902 to $282,684.13 in 1912; in other 

 words, they have more than doubled. During the past decade 

 the City has not appropriated sufficient construction and 

 equipment funds to keep pace with the growth of the collec- 

 tions and exhibitions. The last building erected was the West 

 Wing, provided seven years ago. The East Wing, as well as 

 the East Court Building, are now both urgently needed, for 

 the very large collections from various parts of the world on 

 which upwards of $134,000 have been expended. These 

 collections are now in storage, and some of them are of a 

 perishable character. The retirement of many collections 

 from exhibition is already necessitated by the arrival of the 

 African collections. 



Equipment Fund. — As fully reported by the Director, all 

 parts of the Museum building have now been put in thorough 

 repair, and several inflammable sections have been fireproofed. 

 This, together with the regular growth of permanent casing, 

 exhibition work and storage cases, has nearly exhausted the 

 $75,000 appropriated in 191 1, and application has been made 

 for another equipment appropriation of $75,000 to continue 

 this work so necessary if the valuable new collections are 

 to be cared for and exhibited during the years 1913 and 1914. 

 The Board of Estimate and Apportionment has not yet acted 

 upon this request. 



Special Revenue Bonds for Repairs. — A portion of the 

 present building was erected thirty years ago, and since the 

 sums appropriated for maintenance have always been insufficient 

 to meet the regular items of , maintenance, repairs to the 

 building that were not imperative have been deferred from 

 year to year. The more stringent interpretation, applied by 

 the present administration to the uses of corporate stock, has 

 also prevented the doing of certain kinds of work which 

 formerly were considered a proper charge against corporate 



