Oct. 1898. Annual Report of the Director. 271 



being accessioned as they are acquired, while lantern slides and neg- 

 atives executed by the Museum are entered at the end of the year. 

 The library accession cards had hitherto not been indexed, chiefly 

 owing to the fact that the elaborate system of cataloguing in the 

 library had been considered sufficient. For the sake of ready refer- 

 ence, however, an index has been made and is kept in the Recorder's 

 office. The records of the Department of Anthropology were virtually 

 rewritten from beginning to end, the endless changes in the jackets 

 having created much confusion in the records. The Recorder has 

 now on file a catalogue of nearly all the collections in that depart- 

 ment, a very satisfactory state of affairs. An exchange record 

 was also opened during the year, reference to which at any time 

 will show the status of an exchange account. The commer- 

 cial idea of a ledger was used in this case as being the best 

 means of recording such transactions. An index to the book 

 renders reference to it comparatively simple. The distribution 

 card originally adopted has been changed. The chief idea 

 influencing this change was the fact that a considerable number 

 of specimens sent out for examination had, on their return, to be 

 re-accessioned. This also applied to material sent for examination^ 

 and thus the records were burdened with a number of entries that were 

 more or less fictitious. To obviate these inconveniences a memo card 

 was provided, which, in cases like the above, is held until the trans- 

 action is complete. In case of material sent for examination and 

 returned, no entry is made in any book except the Transportation 

 record, and this with the card, which is numbered and indexed, is all 

 that is required for prompt reference. The total number of speci- 

 mens accessioned during the year was a,pproximately 74,200, not 

 including the specimens secured by the Dorsey expedition. 



Departmental Cataloguing, Inventorying, and Labels. — In no pre- 

 vious year has so much attention been given to this highly important 

 but uninterestin gan dendless labor. Especially in the Departments of 

 Anthropology and Zoology, and as it was demanded in the other 

 departments as well, identification, numbering, and recording of his- 

 torical data have been continued unremittingly. The results obtained 

 form the most gratifying feature to which reference may be made in 

 this report, and it is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the 

 amount of hard work and unremitting attention required from both 

 the heads of departments and their assistants in this task. The year's 



