CONTRACT 
WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC PARKS 
FOR THE OCCUPATION OF THE NEW BUILDING 
Tuts AGREEMENT, made and concluded on the twenty- 
second day of December, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and seventy-seven, between the DEPARTMENT OF 
Pusiic PARKS OF THE CiTy oF NEw York, the party of the 
first part, and the AMERICAN MuseuM oF NATURAL History, 
party of the second part, witnesseth: 
Whereas, by an Act of the Legislature of the State of New 
York, passed April 22d, 1876, entitled ‘‘An Act in relation 
to the powers and duties of the Board of Commissioners of the 
Department of Public Parks, in connection with the American 
Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art,’’ the said party of the first part is authorized and 
directed to enter into a contract with the said party of the 
second part, for the occupation by it of the buildings erected 
or to be erected on that portion of the Central Park in the 
City of New York, known as Manhattan Square, and for 
transferring thereto and establishing and maintaining therein 
its museum, library and collections, and carrying out the 
objects and purposes of said party of the second part; and, 
Whereas, a building contemplated by said act has now 
been erected and nearly completed and equipped in a manner 
suitable for the purposes of said Museum, as provided in the 
first section of the Act of May 15, 1875, known as Chapter 
351, of the Laws of 1875, for the purpose of establishing and 
maintaining therein the said Museum, as provided by the said 
last-named act, and by the Act of April 5, 1871, known as 
Chapter 290, of the Laws of 1871; and, 
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