PRESIDENCY OF 
JOHN DAVID WOLFE 
1869-1872 
THERE was a universal predisposition to assist the new in- 
stitution, and public administrators as well as individuals 
welcomed its foundation, indorsed its aims, and promised 
assistance. 
It was almost immediately realized that the Museum, thus tenta- 
tively organized, needed a charter, to give it corporate functions and 
responsibility, and Messrs. Joseph H. Choate, William A. Haines, and 
Howard Potter were made a committee to prepare a charter, suggest 
a name and apply to the Legislature for the passage of an act of in- 
corporation. 
On February 26 a meeting of the Trustees was held at the resi- The charter, 
dence of the President, and the committee appointed at the previous 
meeting to prepare a draft of a charter presented their report, which 
was adopted section by section and as a whole. 
This charter, which first contained the name American Museum 
of Natural History, was referred back to the committee under in- 
structions to present it to the Legislature. 
It was introduced to the Assembly by Mr. Kiernan, to the Senate 
by Mr. William M. Tweed, read twice, and referred to the Committee 
on Public Education — reported favorably from that committee, and 
committed to the Committee of the Whole — and on April 6, 1869, it 
had passed both houses of the Legislature. It was immediately ac- 
cepted by the Trustees. This act, significant (by its prompt passage 
by the Legislature) of general recognition of its utility, and signifi- 
cant as emanating from a representative body qualified to support the 
claims it created, was hailed with general pleasure. 
[17] 
