BEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^ 1913. 81 



work the Museum does not come in competition. Its object in this 

 connection as witli the natural history branches, and as defined by 

 law, is to supplement the activities of the bureaus and to cooperate 

 in furthering theii* purposes. The Museum is the depository for the 

 material things collected by these bureaus or desirable to assemble 

 hi their behalf and in behalf directly of the industries themselves, 

 illustrating the extent and variety of raw materials used by the lat- 

 ter, their methods, their products and their history. As to the utHity 

 of the Museum's part in this great field, almost daily instances can 

 be cited, despite the present very incompleteness of the collections, 

 and with the rounding out of its organization and the building up 

 of its collections, the department cannot fail to do for this country 

 what corresponding mstitutions have accompUshed for the indus- 

 tries of England, France and Germany. 



Without disturbing at present the relations of the several art- 

 industrial branches which have continued to be administered under 

 the Museum organization into three departments, established in 1897, 

 and also without fully maturing plans for a thoroughly comprehensive 

 department of the arts and industries, attention has for the moment 

 been mainly directed to two subjects which are of paramount impor- 

 tance and which, next to those industries concerned with the produc- 

 tion of food, occupy the foremost place among the industries of this 

 country, namely, textiles and mineral technology. In connection 

 with the former subject, however, certain other products of animal 

 and vegetable origin are likewise receiving consideration. 



Owing to the diversity of conditions underlying the illustration of 

 the different industries, a uniform policy applicable to all branches is 

 quite impossible. With the textiles and certain other subjects in 

 which this method can be carried out, it is proposed, as in natm-al 

 history, to divide the collections into two main groups, an exhibition 

 series and a study or reference series. As planned for the division 

 of textiles, the exhibition series, aside from a historical display, set- 

 ting forth important stages in its development, will be mainly illus- 

 trative of the latest processes and products of the industry, the mate- 

 rials being selected and arranged and labeled to fm-nish an impressive 

 object lesson for the pubhc. The reference series, maintained for the 

 benefit of manufacturers and technical students, will, on the other 

 hand, consist of a large, comprehensive and constantly increasing col- 

 lection of authentic and standardized raw and manufactured mate- 

 rials, which, not requiring to be displayed, may be provided for in a 

 compact arrangement, though demanding an elaborate classification, 

 provisions for easy reference, and a system of labeling and cataloguing 

 that wiU tend to its full and ready utilization. In mineral technology 

 the conditions are not dissimilar, though its field has for some time 



