1883.] 341 [Annual Meeting. 



It may be well for us to remember also that we are actually 

 against the wall which we have been approaching for the past 

 ten years. The treasurer's report states that the finishing of the 

 single department which we have brought forward as a necessary 

 illustration of the quality of the work we proposed to do for the 

 benefit of the people of Boston, was made possible only through 

 an unusual accident in our finances. 1 We are, therefore, at the 

 present time entirely without the means of completing any other 

 department. 



We cannot progress in the path we have chosen without seri- 

 ous injury to all the other interests of this society. We support 

 a library, publications, and meetings, and these are necessarily far 

 more important to the members than our Museum. The Museum 

 must, therefore, not become a greater burden than it already is, 

 or it will defeat the main object of its founders, and what should 

 be one of the main objects of its existence. It must not only earn 

 its own support from the public whom it strives to benefit, but 

 be capable of assisting the less attractive though essentially 

 important purpose of the Society's organization, the encourage- 

 ment of original research from which all knowledge flows. 



While we have conclusively shown the need of a Museum such 

 as is contemplated for the instruction of the teachers, general 

 students, and the public of this city, and also that it was possible 

 to answer the requirements of these three classes, we have at the 

 same time demonstrated other facts. 



What we have been and are striving to do is as revolutionary 

 in the management of Museums as was the first attempt to open 

 a circulating library for the public. If we answered to-day the 

 demands already continually made by teachers of the best class, 

 and students (and I mean by this, specific requests which we 

 should like to satisfy but which are perpetually and necessarily 

 refused by us) we should have to arrange and keep on hand ref- 

 erence collections under the charge of attendants, and have a con- 

 sulting room set apart for their use. 



Our supplies are in every way behind the demands of the 

 times ; there is no question at all except the financial one, which 



1 The money for this purpose was obtained by the sale of stock from our general 

 fund, which, however, h id been increased to this amount in the previous year by a 

 fortunate stock dividend. 



