8 
Field  Columbian  Museum — Reports,  Vol.  i. 
berships  were  made  in  quite  large  numbers  at  the  beginning  of  this 
year,  and  thus  far  723  persons  have  accepted  election.  Besides  securing 
to  the  Museum  an  effective  constituency  in  many  ways,  these  mem- 
berships provide  a  very  considerable  annual  revenue,  and  it  is 
believed  that  with  proper  effort  the  number  may  be  largely  augmented 
from  year  to  year.  Only  one  Honorary  Life  Member  has  been 
elected,  Professor  Charles  B.  Cory,  of  Boston,  and  thus  far  but  one 
Life  Member  has  been  elected,  Mr.  Wm.  j.  Chalmers,  of  Chicago. 
Mr.  Allison  V.  Armour  has  been  elected  a  Patron. 
Lecture  Courses. — The  lecture  courses  were  inaugurated  in 
December,  1894.  Since  that  date  four  courses  have  been  projected, 
numbering  altogether  twenty-seven  lectures.  Most  of  these  lectures 
have  been  illustrated  by  stereopticon  views,  for  which  special  appara- 
tus was  purchased  by  the  Museum.  The  first  three  courses  were 
given  during  the  season  of  1894-95.  For  lecturers  the  Museum 
depended  primarily  upon  the  Curators  of  the  Museum,  but 
the  courses  were  augmented  both  in  extent  and  interest  by  lecturers 
from  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  Museum  of  Archeology  of  the 
Ohio  University;  the  Chicago  Academy  of  Sciences;  Lake  Forest 
University;  the  Geographical  Society  of  California,  etc. 
Admission  to  these  lectures  was  free  to  the  public,  although  for 
the  first  two  lectures  of  the  first  course  complimentary  admission 
tickets  were  sent  to  the  officials  and  constituency  of  the  Museum.  As 
this  was  found  to  entail  considerable  extra  expense  and  trouble,  how- 
ever, the  method  was  abandoned  and  the  doors  were  thrown  open  to 
the  public  indiscriminately. 
The  first  course,  as  given,  was  as  follows: 
Dec.  15.  — "  A  Trip  to  Greenland. "  (Illustrated). 
Prof.  T.  C.  Chamberlain,  University  of  Chicago. 
Dec.  22. — "Movements  of  the  Earth's  Surface." 
Prof.  R.  D.  Salisbury,  University  of  Chicago. 
Jan.    5. — "How  Gold  Occurs  in  Nature." 
H.  W.  Nichols,  Curator  of  Economic  Geology,  Field 
Columbian  Museum. 
Jan.  12. — "The  Ancient  Volcanoes  of    the  Yellowstone."  (Illus- 
trated). 
Prof.  J.  P.  Iddings,  University  of  Chicago. 
Jan.  19. — "  The  Extraction  of  Iron  from  Its  Ores."  (Illustrated). 
H.  W.  Nichols. 
Jan.  26. — "  History  of  Gold  Mining  in  the  United  States." 
Prof.  R.  A.  F.  Penrose,  University  of  Chicago. 
These  lectures  were  well  attended  at  the  start,  but  during  the 
coldest  weather  showed  some  diminution  in  numbers  present.    As  the 
