ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



1910. 



To the Trustees of Field Museum of Natural History: 



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

 seum for the year ending December 31, igio. 



Under the proper heading and subheading following, the affairs 

 of the Museum are considered and commented upon in detail, from 

 which will be drawn many gratifying evidences of the steady develop- 

 ment of the Museum and of the increase of its usefulness as an agency 

 for popular education and for the acquisition and dissemination of 

 scientific knowledge. Its field of operation has been greatly extended 

 during the past year, especially in the Department of Anthropology, 

 although all of the Departments have shared in the general outward 

 movement. The death of Mr. Edwin Walker, who had been a most 

 serviceable member of the Board of Trustees since its organization, 

 must be chronicled. At a meeting of the Board held October loth 

 the following was recorded: 



"The closing of the life of Edwin Walker, after a protracted and 

 suffering illness, removes from this Board one of its oldest members, 

 whose constant services, especially in matters involving legal ques- 

 tions, have been of very great value to the Institution. 



"Upon the larger interests of Chicago, in which community he had 

 lived and occupied a conspicuous station for many years, and to whose 

 welfare he was patriotically devoted, the death of Mr. Walker entails 

 the loss of another of those strong men to whose wise, forceful, purpose- 

 ful character Chicago owes its great progress and high place as a 

 municipality. We feel it a most grateful privilege to express our ad- 

 miration for him as a fellow citizen and as a friend." 



During the year two members of the scientific staff have died: Mr. 

 John Farwell Ferry, of the Division of Ornithology, and Mr. Charles 

 S. Wake, cataloguer and bibliographer in the Department of Anthro- 

 pology. Mr. Ferry was a young man of much promise and of great 

 enthusiasm, and his associates and others in similar work keenly 

 regret the close of the creditable career that undoubtedly awaited this 

 young scientist. Mr. Wake was well advanced in years and a gentle- 

 man of unusual culture. He performed services of much value to 

 science, but of a character not calculated to attract public attention. 



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