What the Public Wants

Abstract

A STUDY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. THE American Museum of Natural History probably stands at the head of those museums which set out to interest and attract the general public. In so doing it obeys the clauses of its Acts of Incorporation, but it obeys also the more imperative law of its continued life: to live, a museum, like everything else, must progress; to progress, it needs sustenance. The American Museum, being neither a Government museum, nor a State museum, nor a municipal museum, has to rely upon private endowment and subscriptions, The annual appropriation of the city is confined to the maintenance of the building, and is inadequate even for that purpose. To instal its exhibits, to send out its expeditions, to pay its staff, and to prosecute those scientific researches for which it is celebrated, the museum must arouse private individuals to that degree of enthusiasm at which, they will part with their dollars. The mechanism is the enrolment of such individuals as members of various grades, and so successful is it that no less, than 5556 members are now enrolled.