FOREWORD 



TO plan for the future it is well, first, to review the past, to 

 follow the work of our Board, to see what the Museum is 

 and what it contains, to think of the present and coming 

 City of New York, and then to endeavor to be as large minded 

 as the Founders were forty-one years ago. 



There are no models in this country or abroad to follow. Let us 

 make our own model and set our own standard of a public educational 

 institution and home of science in every branch of nature. 



The plan outlined in this Report is not a crystal. It is a growing 

 thing to be developed and improved under criticism and suggestion 

 and with the advance of science and discovery. But it is well to have 

 a clear vision ahead for the next two or three decades at least, so that 

 everything which may be done now will finally fit into its place as 

 part of a continuous scheme, with an arrangement and sequence of the 

 whole designed to give as clear an impression to the public as is given 

 in each of the single exhibits of the present time. 



In preparing the materials for this Report I have been assisted by 

 Director, Hermon C. Bumpus, by the Assistant Secretary, George H. 

 Sherwood, and by members of the Scientific Staff. The basis of the 

 history is that prepared by Mr. Louis P. Gratacap some years ago. 

 It will be interesting to fill out many details as time goes on. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn, 



President. 

 American Museum, 



January 31, 1910. 



