HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 



Museum in the Park that shall become an aid in the Great Educa- 

 tional System of the City, concentrate and develop Scientific efforts 

 in all departments of Natural History, and at the same time be an 

 instructive and acceptable resort for the people of the city, and for 

 the throng of strangers that visit it." Under the presidency of John 

 David Wolfe and the able guidance of William A. Haines, Chairman 

 of the Executive Committee, the Museum was incorporated April 6, 

 1869. The financial relations between the Trustees and the City were 

 laid down December 23, 1869, and finally became embodied in the 

 law relating to the Department of Parks. 



A most fortunate circumstance in the educational history of the 

 City of New York was the discovery and embodiment in the Con- 

 tract with the City of a new idea in municipal government — namely, 

 the erection of the building and its maintenance by the munici- 

 pality, and the donation by Trustees and other citizens of all the col- 

 lections. This idea appeared in all the early correspondence, in the 

 first contract, and was finally and formally expressed in the contract 

 drawn up by Mr. Choate and Mr. Green when the Museum entered the 

 original building on Manhattan Square. 



This reciprocal adjustment was stimulating both to public expendi- 

 ture and to private munificence; it formed the model on which the re- 

 lations of the American Museum and of the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art were established, and on which, in later years, the Botanical 

 Garden and the Zoological Park were founded. It is by far the wisest 

 and best adjustment which has ever been devised, since it has proved, 

 by experience, to be superior to exclusive municipal or state control, 

 or to private control. The essential features in these agreements are 

 as follows: 



"The Trustees of the American Museum to employ their 

 own Curators for the care and arrangement of their collection, 

 and to pay them their salaries, all such persons to be subjected 

 to the regulations of the Park Commissioners. 



"The collections already acquired and those which may 

 from time to time be acquired and so deposited, to remain 



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