of these collections were the means at his command to do so, and he would like to have it in his power to employ some one who might accompany these collections, giving lectures upon them in the public schools, and in this way the Museum might be brought into closer relations with the schools, resulting in a more general diffusion of information among the youth of the community. THE ANDREW CARNEGIE NATURALISTS CLUB. The Club still continues to hold its meetings regularly. Its sessions are held in the Laboratory of Mineralogy, and the members have received permission to place in this room a couple of cabinets into which they may put the collections which they make on the occasion of their various trips into the country. During the years in which this Club has been in existence a number of bright boys have found it a means of growth, and your Director recalls with interest the fact that among the lads who first identified themselves with the Club in their schoolboy days one is now a professor in Harvard University, and another in the University of Wisconsin. Both of these young men recall with pleasure the days they spent under the roof of the Museum getting their first insight into the mysteries and beauties of nature, and acquiring habits of exact observation. THE WORK FOR THE COMING YEAR. An examination of the financial statements appended to this Report shows that we have succeeded in coming through the year with a small balance in the treasury. This has been in obedience to your rules, which prohibit the Director from incurring expenses in excess of the annual appropriation. We have accomplished this result, as in former years, by leaving undone many things which we might have done and which ought to have been done. We have been rigidly economical in all our expendi tures. As I said in the introduction to this report, so I may state in conclusion, that our great need at the present time is re seum. sources with which to employ more men, to avail ourselves of opportunities to complete the collections which we have begun and to properly install them, to extend our inquiries into fertile fields of investigation, and to publish the results of our researches and discoveries. Your Director sincerely hopes that the comparatively small appropriation made during the past year may be continued to the Museum and not decreased, but, if possible, increased. We have before us a number of important tasks. There have been prepared for mounting over one hundred skins of the great African mammals presented to us by Mr. Childs Frick. These should be mounted and suitably displayed. To do this will require the expenditure of much labor and the addition of a large number of cases to those already existing in the MuWe have in process of construction a number of large groups representing mammals and birds which should be finished during the coming year and which also call for cases. The Gallery of Fishes remains wholly unfurnished and is in the same condition in which it was when the building was thrown open in 1907. To furnish this room, as it should be furnished, would involve on outlay for cabinets and cases of not less than five thousand dollars. Our vast collections of shells and insects will have to be thoroughly re-arranged and classified. We ought to have assistance in this. The cabinets have been built for these collections, but the drawers which are to fill these cabinets remain to be made. We have a vast quantity of paleontological specimens which have not as yet been extracted from the rock. They should be taken out and mounted as speedily as possible. In many cases they represent species which we know to be wholly new to science. Mr. Stewart is very anxious to obtain cases and cabinets for the study collections in the Section of Mineralogy. They ought to be provided as soon as possible, so that students in the Technical Schools and in the University of Pittsburgh may have access to these collection for purposes of study. All these things and many others already alluded to elsewhere lie before us. In short, there is a mountain of work before the Director and his associates which ought not to be much longer allowed to grow in height. In calling attention to these necessities, it is not in a complaining or fault-finding spirit. It is due, however, to the Trus tees of the Institution to know how the work of this Department has grown, and to understand that we need their assistance in devising ways and means to meet the requirements of the case. The affairs of the Museum are in a healthy condition in so far that it is accomplishing the purposes for which it was founded, and is being more and more looked to as one of the great centres of scientific interest and information in this country. But just as it grows in reputation the demands upon it for service increase, and it is rapidly becoming impossible to keep with these demands through lack of men and of means. up STATEMENT OF THE PROPERTY, OR ASSETS, OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM, NOT INCLUDING Collections purchased or made by the Museum (cost) Collections donated of which the cost to Photographs, Paintings, and Frames... Storage Cases, Boxes, Trays, etc. $271,233.52 229,196.50 ... 1,420.70 134,212.86 19,846.62 4,933.13 678.26 619.43 2,060.61 Tools and Machinery 2,029.42 Library, Books obtained by donation or Increase in value of property in Museum. during the year ending March 31, 1911 $ 70,760.48 This statement is necessarily only approximate, as there are many thousands of accessions which have been received, consisting of objects of value and interest, to which no financial value has been attached by the donors. |