ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
Published by the New York Zoological Society 
Volume XXV MAY, 1922 Number 3 
THE HEADS AND HORNS MUSEUM 
By William T. Hornaday, Curator 
Illustrated from photographs by Elwin R. Sanborn 
W ITH the dedication and opening on May 
25 of the Museum of the National Col¬ 
lection of Heads and Horns, another 
dream comes true. It is complete in almost 
every detail, and it far surpasses the original 
hopes of its founders. In the beginning no one 
dared to conjure up, even in his mind’s eye, 
this spacious and elegant structure that now 
stands for an accomplished fact. In arranging 
the various units of the collection, we did our 
work on the theory that our results will stand 
for at least 200 years. 
So far as the building is concerned, this pros¬ 
pect is by no means an idle fancy. Its thick 
walls and floors of solid masonry are good for 
much more than two centuries, provided the 
Goths and Vandals of civilized society do not 
wantonly destroy it. It owes its existence to 
the generosity and good-will-to-man of the per¬ 
sons whose names are as follows: 
Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson 
Mrs. Russell Sage 
John D. Archbold 
Jacob H. Schiff 
George F. Baker 
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie 
Andrew Carnegie 
Edmund C. Converse 
Samuel Thorne (In Memoriam) 
George D. Pratt 
It is only just that early and decisive ack¬ 
nowledgement should be made of the fact that 
we owe this Museum building largely to the 
initiatory foresight, energy and good will of 
Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson 
The total cost of the building and its equip¬ 
ment is about $140,000. Mr. Henry D. Whit¬ 
field is the architect and the Miller-Reed Com¬ 
pany are the builders. The case work is by 
David Lupton’s Sons and the electric lighting is 
the work of the Pittsburgh Reflector Company. 
The architectural style of the building is the 
classic, and the materials are buff brick and 
Indiana limestone. The inscription carved over 
the entrance reads 
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF HEADS AND HORNS 
The flanking exterior tablets at left and right 
are inscribed as follows: 
Erected 
by the 
In Memory of the 
NEW YORK 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
1922 
VANISHING BIG GAME 
OF THE WORLD 
The structure is two full stories in height. Its 
extreme dimensions are as follows: Length, 91 
feet; width without loggia, 56 feet; height of 
side walls to cornice, 33 feet. The walls of 
the great exhibition halls on the main floor are 
18 feet in height, lighted both by daylight and 
alternately by a powerful system of mirror re¬ 
flectors fitted with 314 75-watt electric lights. 
This system is the result of three months of ex¬ 
perimenting, and we believe that it represents 
the last word in the lighting of high wall ex¬ 
hibits of miscellaneous objects. 
The lower story contains a spacious exhibi¬ 
tion hall 52 by 42 feet, in which has been in¬ 
stalled a really great general collection of 
duplicates for reference and study. For the 
present, this hall will be open only to sports¬ 
men, students, investigators, zoologists, and 
educators. 
The two public exhibition halls in the main 
floor carry out to the letter the original plan 
for two distinct and equally complete series of 
heads and horns, zoological and geographical. 
The Zoological Hall has been arranged in close 
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