This Museum of Pure Science will develop three-fifths of the original ground plan. The remaining two-fifths may advantageously be devoted in part to the applications of science to health, to economics, to industry, to mineralogy, to the textile arts and manufactures. Such museums have already been developed in cities like Philadelphia and Munich, and such applications of natural history and of anthropology are greatly needed in the City of New York. The enlarged Lecture Hall may be used in common, and for purposes of both pure and applied science, it should have a seating capacity for 2,500 to 3,000 persons. It would be in practically constant use for lectures and demonstrations in pure science, in applied science and by the Board of Education. By combined municipal, state and individual effort, a Natural History Museum adequate for the coming fifty years may be completed in the year 1924, to celebrate our first half century. The prepara Plans for New Buildings tion of general plans may be completed during the present year at an estimated cost of $3,500. The plans and specifications for the SOUTHEAST WING and COURT BUILDING were completed in May, 1911, and could be sent to the builder at once. Plans for the WEST CENTRAL PAVILION will be restudied to meet the greatly increased cost of modern building. Plans for the remainder of the Transverse Section include the WEST CENTRAL WING, the ASTRONOMIC HALL, the EAST CENTRAL WING (AFRICAN HALL), combined with the EAST CENTRAL PAVILION (proposed ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL HALL). With the approval of Governor Smith, a bipartisan State Commission will be appointed at Albany to consider the various plans that have been suggested as a State Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. Among the suggested plans is that illustrated in the accompanying plates of this Report, first brought forward in the Fiftieth Annual Report. The approximate cost of each of these sections is as follows: The American Museum building to date has cost $5,319,821.48, and the additional total cost of the projected buildings will be not less than $10,000,000. Comparative This figure is to be compared with educational Cost of Buildings and other buildings in the City of New York, the approximate cost of which is shown in the accompanying table: Total appropriations for new Schools and High Schools Cost of the New York Public Library and Branch $119,307,742.69 15,000,000.00 25,000,000.00 12,143,500.00 6,542,000.00 Cost of the American Museum of Natural History to date 5,319,821.48 Cost of the Pennsylvania Terminal Building.. 14,830,000.00 Cost of Metropolitan Museum of Art to date (plans about one-half completed)..... The cost is to be considered on the basis of the magnitude of the service the Museum will render: that this will be the central Nature Exhibition, Education and Storage Building from which will radiate nature-education to one million school children annually in and about the City of New York. At present the Museum reaches 1,000,000 school children annually. This number will be further increased at least a quarter by 1924. In the year 1919 the Museum was an auxiliary nature supply center, in books and in lecture, photographic, naturestudy and research materials to the following: LIST OF SCHOOLS AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL Scientific 780 If our institution were not primarily educational, but solely concerned in pure exploration, research and publication like the Carnegie Institution of Washington, or in medical and philanthropic work and research like the Rockefeller Foundation, it might well point with satisfaction to the great results which are being accomplished with the Jesup Endowment Fund; it might continue to expand in the direction of pure research and exploration, leaving the purposes of our Charter of 1869 along the lines of public education unfulfilled. In our opinion such a one-sided development would be a step backward: it would be a betrayal of the purposes which Mr. Jesup had in mind, and which he manifested throughout his entire career as President, as well as those of Mrs. Russell Sage. Pure scientific research of the highest order, conducted by experts who were leaders in their respective fields, was Mr. Jesup's constant aim and should be our constant endeavor in administering his trust. He brought to the Museum leaders in Mammalogy, in Anthropology, in Invertebrate and Vertebrate Palæontology, and through them junior leaders have been trained in the Museum, in field exploration, and in the pure science courses of Columbia |