and of the Contract with the Department of Parks. 
Into these papers, which constitute the unique legal 
foundation of the Museum, he worked an entirely 
new conception, namely, provision for the indepen- 
dent and untrammeled management of the Museum 
by the most intelligent men of the City, combined 
with its establishment as a public institution, to be 
built and partly maintained by public taxation, and 
to be endowed and enriched with specimens brought 
together through private gifts and donations. 
This wise union of public and private endeavor 
led the way to the similar legal foundation of The 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which Mr. Choate 
was also the author. The foundation of these two 
Museums led to that of the several other great 
scientific and educational institutions of the City 
of New York, including the Botanical Garden and 
the Zoological Park, to which have been contrib- 
uted, in the many years since their inception, 
$50,000,000 in private gifts. Thus Mr. Choate 
was, in a sense, the legal author of a system of insti- 
C21] 
