10 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913 



its activities as would weld them into a compact whole, which together 

 form a unique and notable agency for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge, for the direction of research, for cooperation with depart- 

 ments of the Government and with universities and scientific societies 

 in America, and likewise afford a definite correspondent to all scientific 

 institutions and men abroad who seek interchange of views or knowl- 

 edge with men of science in the United States. 



Since that early day the only material change in the scope of the 

 Government Museum has been the addition of a department of 

 American history, intended to illustrate by an appropriate assemblage 

 of objects the lives of distinguished personages, important events, 

 and the domestic life of the country from the colonial period to the 

 present time. 



The development of the Museum has been greatest in those subjects 

 which the conditions of the past 60 years have made most fruitful — 

 the natural liistory, geology, ethnology, and archeology of the United 

 States, supplemented by many collections from other countries. 

 The opportunities for acquisition in these directions have been 

 mainly brought about through the acti^dties of the scientific and 

 economic surveys of the Government, many of which are the direct 

 outgrowths of earher explorations, stimulated or directed by the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The Centennial Exliibition of 1876 afforded 

 the first opportunity for estabHsliing a department of the industrial 

 arts on a creditable basis, and of tliis the fullest advantage was taken, 

 though only a part of the collections then obtained could be accom- 

 modated in the space available. The department or gallery of the 

 fine arts had made little progress, though not from lack of desire or 

 appreciation, until within the past seven years, during wliich its 

 interests have been markedly advanced. 



With the completion of the new large granite structure on the Mall, 

 the Museum has come virtually into possession of a group of three 

 buildings, in which there is opportunity for a proper systematic 

 arrangement of its vast and varied collections as well as a compre- 

 hensive public installation, and under these favorable conditions it 

 may be considered to have entered upon an era of renewed pros- 

 perity and usefulness. 



While it is the piimary duty of a museum to preserve the objects 

 confided to its care, as it is that of a library to preserve its books and 

 manuscripts, yet the importance of public collections rests not upon 

 the mere basis of custodianship, nor upon the number of specimens 

 assembled and their money value, but upon the use to which they are 

 put. Judged by this standard, the National Museum may claim to 

 have reached a high state of efficiency. From an educational point 

 of view it is of great value to those persons who are so fortunate as to 

 reside in Washington or who are able to visit the Nation's Capital. 



