ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



1909. 



To the Trustees of Field Museum of Natural History: 



I have the honor to present a report of the operations of the 

 Museum for the year ending December 31, 1909. 



In the extension of its scientific operations into remote lands, 

 and in the accumulation of material of great value from new fields 

 consist the more important activities of the Museum for 1909. The 

 expedition into Tibet, in the South Pacific Islands, and in the Philip- 

 pines, and the acquisition of material by purchase from Egypt and 

 German New Guinea, the Rothrock herbaria and library, and the 

 collections made by subordinate Museum expeditions in Guatemala, 

 British New Guinea, Bermuda, Fiji Islands, etc., have unitedly 

 brought to the stores of the institution the most valuable material 

 from every point of view that any year has recorded. This has been 

 done without interference with the work of rearranging and labeling 

 and recasing old material and the installation of new material in 

 accordance with the plans for the occupation of the new building, 

 inaugurated four years ago. In the introduction of new material to 

 the exhibition series in all departments, and the consequent extension 

 of geographical areas, scientific discrimination has resulted in con- 

 siderable elimination of material in all departments, both because of 

 space requirements and because of the transfer of apparent duplicates 

 to the study collections, whereby the latter were rendered more 

 complete in themselves without detracting from the interest of the 

 exhibited collections, at least from a popular standpoint. In all the 

 scientific departments increased storage facilities for duplicates and 

 for exchange material have been provided and the spaces and systems 

 for the accommodation of study material have been enlarged and 

 improved. It will be observed too, that in response to the demands 

 for reference books, necessary for the identification and description 

 of material, the departmental libraries have had gratifying addi- 

 tions. The capacity of the printing shop has been doubled to meet 

 the requisitions for labels, the output of which this year has greatly 

 increased. The generous appropriations for exhibition cases for all 

 departments have hardly equaled the requirements, but the pro- 



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