PIONEERS OF AMERICAN SCIENCE. 



Saturday, December 29, 1906, was notable in the annals of the 

 Museum, since at 3 o'clock of that day there were held in the large 

 auditorium the ceremonies attending the unveiling of the marble busts 

 which have been installed in the foyer, representing ten of the men who 

 have been foremost in the advancement of science in America. The 

 auditorium was crowded to its full capacity with Members of the Museum 

 and their friends and visiting scientists, and Professor H. F. Osborn, 

 Second Vice-President of the Museum, presided in the absence, due to 

 illness, of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, First Vice-President. The exercises 

 began with the singing of the national anthem " America," after which 

 Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, Director of the Museum, acting for Mr. Morris 

 K. Jesup, addressed the Trustees as follows: 



" Thirty-six years ago several men of this city organized to perform 

 three closely-related functions: 



1, To establish and maintain a museum of natural history; 



2, To encourage and develop the study of the natural sciences; 



3, To advance the general knowledge of kindred subjects. 



" Of this company, Mr. Morgan was one; a second (Mr. Choate) is 

 he who will receive on behalf of the Honorable Board of Trustees the 

 splendid gift that has brought this congregation of scientists together, 

 and a third is he who for more than twenty-five years, as President, has 

 devoted his time, his thought, his energy, his influence, his means, his 

 health, not for the mere naked fulfilment of the terms of the Articles 

 of Incorporation, but for the up-building of an institution that would 

 excite civic pride, for the molding of forces that would result in educa- 

 tional power, for the combination of material that would develop char- 

 acter and for the general exploration of the secrets of Nature, be they 

 hidden in the remote regions of Siberia, in the unknown land and waters 

 of the North, in the ancient monuments of the South or the outcrop- 

 ping foundations of the continent in the West. 



" To what extent the sympathetic union of these three men with other 

 earnest workers in a common cause has been successful in the establish- 

 ment and maintenance of a museum of natural history, none are better 

 able to judge than the members of the various scientific and educational 

 organizations, — the guests that honor the Museum by their presence 



