42 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1919. 



ment. A large part}' of experts was put in the field on the part of 

 the United States, and Canada assisted to the extent of its facilities. 

 Mr. Rathbun himself visited every point of interest, starting with 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, continuing through the fresh-water sys- 

 tems, including the Great Lakes, and ending at Cape Flattery at the 

 west. The report submitted to the Department of State on December 

 31, 1896, was transmitted by the President to Congress and pri"nted. 



On February 1, 1897, Mr. Eathbun was made an Assistant Secretary 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, and on July 1, 1898, was given, in 

 addition, charge of the National Museum. He continued in this posi- 

 tion up to the time of his death. During this period he served as 

 Acting Secretary during three or four months of each year, and also 

 during the year following the death of Secretary Langley, in Feb- 

 ruary', 1906. 



It is almost impossible to attempt to consider in detail the many 

 ramifications of the great work that he accomplished, and naturally 

 the minor, but certainly not unimportant, interests are obscured by 

 the larger events to which he gave the later years of his life. 



The most important of these was the construction of the new Mu- 

 seum building, in which the natural history collections are preserved. 

 His intense interest in this undertaking, which never flagged during 

 the many years of preparation and construction as well as his re- 

 markable capacity for studying detail, is perhaps best shown by 

 his careful preliminary study, " The United States National Mu- 

 seum. An Account of the Buildings Occupied by the National Col- 

 lections," that appeared in the annual report of the United States 

 National Museum for 1903, and in the descriptive account of the 

 Natural History Building of the United States National Museum, 

 that forms No. 80 of the bulletin series, published in 1913 on the 

 completion of the building. 



With an interest equal to that shown by him in the construction of 

 the new Museum building, he undertook the development of the 

 National Gallery of Art, an important feature of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, which, although the one mentioned first in the funda- 

 mental act, had remained dormant for lack of adequate facilities. 

 A permanent record of this development has been left b}' Mr. Eath- 

 bun in Bulletin No. 70 of the United States National Museum, under 

 the title of " The National Gallery of Art, Department of Fine Arts 

 of the National Museum," a volume remarkable for its artistic ap- 

 pearance, to every detail of which he gave his personal attention. 



In his later years his spare time was devoted to gathering data for 

 a history of the National Museum from its beginnings. In connec- 

 tion with these studies a first volume was issued on " The Columbian 

 Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences. A Washington 

 Society of 1816-1838. which established a Museum and Botanic Gar- 



