Report of the President 



The outstanding event of the past year is the decision to proceed at 

 once with the erection of the new wing of the Art Museum. The struc- 

 ture when built was left incomplete, a pavilion at the north end being 

 planned to balance that at the south. The Directors felt unanimously 

 that they should not further delay the building of this addition, required 

 by the design, long promised, and patiently awaited by Mr. George 

 Walter Vincent Smith. Mr. Smith purposes filling the new galleries with 

 the priceless treasures now stored in his house for lack of space in the 

 present museum, which he has filled to overflowing. As no funds for 

 building are available, the cost of the new wing, estimated at upwards 

 of $50,000, must be financed by borrowing, until such time as the Asso- 

 ciation may be able to pay for it by gifts or subscriptions or from its un- 

 restricted income. The structure is to be finished within a few months, 

 and it is particularly gratifying to feel that Springfield will soon have a 

 completed building to house Mr. Smith's great benefactions — the treas- 

 ures of a lifetime of successful and disinterested collecting. Meantime 

 Mr. Smith, with the inborn zest of the true collector, is still continually 

 making additions, numerous objects of art and fine oil paintings, as noted 

 in the curator's report, having been purchased by him during the past 

 year. 



With the work of the Association steadily increasing, and not merely 

 the amount, but the scope of its service to the community growing 

 larger every year, it is not at all surprising that the institution is fre- 

 quently subject to "growing pains." A large exhibition case recently 

 installed in the Museum of Natural History fills its last available floor 

 space. The museum needs not only more exhibition room, but halls and 

 class rooms for its lectures and study courses. The facilities which it 

 offers students of natural history not only appeal to large numbers of 

 private groups and individuals, but have become an almost indispensable 

 part of our public school sj^stem. The crowded condition of the Forest 

 Park Branch Library has been commented on for a number of years, and 

 the patronage is still increasing by leaps and bounds. The Directors 

 recognize the urgent need of a substantial addition to this building when- 

 ever the residents of the district succeed in raising the necessary funds. 

 A new branch library is desired by the people living near the junction of 

 Carew and Liberty streets; and a branch in that region, which has no 

 easy access to other parts of the library system, would without doubt 

 prove of great worth, if the residents can find means of providing a 

 suitable lot and building. 



During this year there has been received a bequest of $500 from the 

 late William A. Birnie to be devoted to the Museum of Natural History, 

 and a portion of the residuary bequest under the will of Elizabeth D. 



