44° Field Columbian Museum — Reports, Vol. i. 



Books. Pamphlets. 



Department of Geology, . 1,463 2,687 



Department of Ornithology, 368 



Department of Zoology, 279 



Records. — No changes have been made in this department, the 

 original system adopted being still maintained. The abandonment 

 of the Department of Columbus Memorial entailed an unusual amount 

 of labor. Receipts were obtained for all of the material distributed 

 and the records show where and when each specimen was distributed. 

 The total number of specimens accessioned during the year has been 

 64,921 and classified as follows : 



No. of No. of 



Accessions. Specimens. 



- Gifts > 125 5>783 



Loans, 1 15 



Exchanges, 36 4,348 



Collected, 58 11,216 



Purchase, 65 43.558 



Deposit 1 1 



286 64,921 



Departmental Cataloguing, Inventorying and Labeling. — With a 

 few minor exceptions all the specimens in Geology are now numbered 

 and catalogued and records of them are filed. Newly descriptive 

 labels were provided for the series of framed enlargements of the cuts 

 illustrating mining in the sixteenth century. Several hundred large 

 specimens which had been imperfectly labeled were provided with 

 descriptive labels. Many single collections were also fully labeled, 

 of which might be mentioned the Mazon Creek fossils, local Niagara 

 fossils and dinosaur remains. In the Department of Zoology an un- 

 usual number of labels has been written, the total exceeding those of 

 any previous year. The system of cataloguing in the Department of 

 Botany has been considerably improved by the introduction of a new 

 system requiring but little clerical work to keep it up to date. In this 

 connection the report of the Curator of the Department of Botany is 

 given in full : 



" The method of handling incoming material is as follows : Upon 

 receipt of a collection a blank form of accession giving the date of 

 receipt, collector's name, locality represented, number of specimens 

 and how acquired, is filled out and deposited with the Recorder of 

 the Museum, The collection is then stored away until its turn for 

 installation. When laid out for mounting, the labels are permanently 

 attached to the sheets, the plants are placed upon them, and all are 

 superimposed in an open-ended box ready for consecutive handling 

 by the mounter. After mounting, the sheets are arranged in the 



