REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT 



5 



proportion of them come with a definite purpose. The use by study 

 clubs and classes has increased, nearly seven thousand children have 

 come for regular lessons or lectures, while clubs of boys and of girls 

 for the study of natural history have been fostered, and work for the 

 scientific societies of the city has been extended. 



Death has removed from the Board of Directors two esteemed and 

 valued members — Henry J. Beebe and Stanford L. Haynes. The 

 Directors have expressed in appropriate resolutions, which will be 

 printed with this report, their sense of the great loss thus sustained by 

 this Association. 



In January, Mr. Solomon B. Griffin was unanimously elected a mem- 

 ber of the Board. 



An unusually large number of valuable gifts have been received, 

 which have already been acknowledged and are deeply appreciated. 

 Friends of the late William R. Whitmore subscribed a fund to purchase 

 a representative painting by this gifted artist, and chose ''Sylvia at the 

 Pool", which has been hung in the delivery room of the library. The 

 late MsiYy L. Searle has bequeathed the sum of $500 for the reference 

 department of the library, and the late Mrs. J. Searle Hurlbut $500 

 for the purchase of books for the dental library. 



In view of rising costs of all kinds and consequently augmented 

 maintenance charges, the library and the museums have attempted 

 simply to carry on their customary activities, and so far as may be 

 satisfy the rapidly increasing demands within the scope of their present 

 work. It should not be forgotten, however, that there remain many 

 ways in which the institution can be expanded with great practical 

 benefit to the community. As its present work has been made possible 

 in no small measure through the gifts of generous citizens, so in the 

 future additional gifts and bequests, it is to be hoped, will enable it to 

 enter still broader fields of useful endeavor. 



NATHAN D. BILL, President. 



