ANNUAL  REPORT  OF  THE  DIRECTOR. 
1899-1900. 
To  the  Trustees  of  the  Field  Columbian  Museum: 
I  have  the  honor  to  present  a  report  of  the  operations  of  the 
Museum  for  the  year  closing  September  30,  1900.  Your  Director 
has  been  absent  from  his  post  several  months  of  the  period  covered 
by  this  report,  and  must  rely  more  than  usual  upon  the  reports  of 
the  heads  of  departments  for  such  information  as  is  conveyed  to  you 
hereby.  As  will  be  apparent  from  the  details  following,  very  im- 
portant improvements  have  been  made,  and  owing  to  the  personal 
attention  given  by  the  President  to  the  executive  work  of  the  institu- 
tion, the  year  records  unusual  activity  and  progress.  An  important 
action  of  the  Executive  Committee  has  been  the  abandonment  of  all 
the  industrial  and  historical  collections  of  the  Museum.  With  the 
exception  of  the  annex  occupied  by  transportation,  the  halls  hereto- 
fore occupied  by  the  industrial  arts  have  been  or  soon  will  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  use  of  the  Department  of  Anthropology,  and  the  material 
heretofore  contained  therein  returned  to  the  donor,  presented  to 
appropriate  institutions  or  stored  away  for  further  consideration.  In 
this  connection  it  is  well  to  note  the  distribution  of  the  material, 
photographs,  paintings,  etc.,  in  Columbus  Memorial  Hall  to  the  Chi- 
cago Historical  Society,  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  -Newberry 
Library,  and  to  a  number  of  schools  in  the  state;  also  the  presenta- 
tion by  President  Higinbotham  of  the  collection  of  dressed  and 
undressed  skins  of  mammals,  birds  and  reptiles  that  may  be  utilized 
for  commercial  purposes,  to  the  Commercial  Museum  of  Philadelphia. 
This  collection,  which  had  attracted  considerable  attention,  had  been 
purchased  with  other  material  from  Tiffany  &  Company  of  New  York 
by  Mr.  Higinbotham  and  presented  to  the  Museum.  The  action  of 
the  Trustees  above  referred  to  rendered  this  material  inappropriate 
under  the  scope  adopted  and  it  was  returned  to  Mr.  Higinbotham, 
who,  as  stated,  presented  it  to  a  museum  devoted  to  commercial  ends. 
Staff  of  the  Museum. — The  personnel  of  the  staff  remains  prac- 
tically unchanged.     The  resignation  of  Mr.  Dieserud,  Librarian  of 
433 
