which has proved to be most advantageous. He was always actively 
engaged in furthering the interests of the Museum at the State Capital, 
with the various City authorities and particularly in conferences with 
the Mayor and with the President of the Park Board. For many years 
he visited the Museum several days each week, and to within the last 
few years attended to all the details of administration. 
This brief review of his official connection with us gives little idea 
of the real character and magnitude of his services; to attempt to 
record the history of his administration would be to write the history 
of the institution since 1881, when his name first appears as President. 
Of all the many centers of his activities for public good the Museum 
was most constantly in his mind, closest to his heart and the recipient 
of his most generous gifts. Succeeding Mr. John David Wolfe and 
Mr. Robert L. Stuart, he assumed the presidency of the Museum at a 
time when the first impulse and enthusiasm of its establishment had 
slackened somewhat and it was evident that some one must assume the 
chief care and responsibility of leadership, financial, administrative and 
constructive. 
His first annual report announced his determination to establish a 
collection showing both the natural history and the economic features 
of the woods and trees of North America. In 1897 he established the 
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, to maintain explorations in British 
Columbia, Alaska and Siberia and to publish the results of these 
explorations, the purpose of which was to determine, if possible, the 
migrations of the human races between the new and old worlds. He 
also maintained expeditions extending over a period of several years for 
the purpose of collecting important data regarding the vanishing tribes 
of North American Indians. He supported the Lumholtz expedition 
IL a 
