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to erect, establish, conduct and maintain on the Central Park, a Meteor- 

 ological and Astronomical Observatory, a Museum of Natural History 

 and a Gallery of Art, and the buildings therefor, and to accept gifts, 

 devises and bequests upon suitable conditions. 



Although the Board of Commissioners was thus early clothed with 

 ample authority to establish within the Park a variety of museums 

 that would afford the means of popular cultivation and innocent recre- 

 ation, yet they have felt that, to insure the proper management of such 

 institutions, it would be better to leave them to the care of private, 

 associations than for the Board to expend public money in the purchase 

 of specimens of Natural History or works of Art ; and in giving 

 encouragement to private organizations, the Board made known at its 

 outset that not only the object of the Association must be approved, 

 but its sound organization and undoubted ability to command the means 

 necessary to accomplish its purposes according to a high standard of 

 excellence, must be first demonstrated. It was, therefore, with feelings 

 of great satisfaction, that the Commissioners, on the 30th of December, 

 1868, received a letter from a number of well-known citizens, inquiring 

 if the Board was disposed to provide for the reception and development 

 of a Museum of Natural History. 



In reply to this letter the Comptroller of the Park wrote, that " the 

 Commissioners will very gladly receive the Collection to which you 

 allude, and will use their best exertions toward the establishment of a 

 Museum of Natural History of an extent and excellence in all its 

 departments that will be creditable to the City ; and in their efforts 

 toward the development of such an institution, the Commissioners of 

 the Park will highly esteem your valuable co-operation." 



In pursuance of the authority vested in the Commissioners of the 

 Central Park, and in accordance with suitable rules and regulations, 

 the building known as the Arsenal, situate on the east side of the 

 Park, was carefully fitted up and arranged for the temporary reception 

 and proper exhibition of a rare and most valuable collection of objects 

 of Natural History, which had been gathered under the patronage of 

 the American Museum of Natural History — a society composed of 

 some of our most public-spirited citizens, and offering every guarantee 

 of the successful accomplishment of the object for which they were 

 incorporated. 



Such has been the zeal and earnestness displayed by this Society in 

 the prosecution of its work, that the space already allotted in the 



