344 Field Columbian Museum — Reports, Vol. II. 



ber of specimens entered in the inventory books during the 

 year. These books now number 25 volumes. Card catalogues 

 have been made of collections as fast as they have been received, and 

 few of the great collections acquired remain uncatalogued. The 

 preparation of lists of specimens from the catalogue cards for the 

 office of the Recorder have been brought to date. Aluminum sunken 

 labels have been prepared during the year for the North Pacific Coast 

 collection and for a large part of the California collection, while 

 identifying labels have been placed on all specimens on exhibition. The 

 Curator of Botany reports entries to the number of 16,147 as having 

 been made during the year, bringing the total up to date to 178,008 

 items contained in 51 catalogue books. In addition to this, approxi- 

 mately 2,500 cards have been written. In the Department of Geol- 

 ogy the amount of cataloguing performed was greater than usual, 

 owing to the large quantity of material obtained from the Louisiana 

 Purchase Exposition. The cataloguing of the invertebrate fossils 

 collected bv Mr. Slocom in western New York was also a task of con- 

 siderable magnitude. With the exception of the Bixby collection, 

 however, which was not received until late in the year, it is possible 

 to report all material in the Department fully inventoried and 

 catalogued. The record of the entries is as follows: Number of 

 Record Books, 19; total number of entries, 52,835; entries during 

 the year, 15,011; total number of cards written, 6,600. These en- 

 tries are subdivided as follows: Paleontological specimens, 11,546; 

 economic specimens, 1,748; mineral specimens, 1,100; geological 

 specimens, 264; lithological specimens, 187; meteorites, 149; and 

 geographical specimens, 17. The cataloguing of photographs filed 

 in the Department albums has been dontinued, and additions 

 made during the year number 301. In addition, a system of filing 

 loose photographs has been established, which proves very service- 

 able for preserving such photographs and rendering them acces- 

 sible. The files used are similar to the ordinary letter file reinforced 

 by a binding of strong muslin. In these the photographs are 

 filed alphabetically, while the files are grouped according to subjects. 

 The number of photographs now filed in this manner in the Depart- 

 ment is 745, and the number of files 22. New labels were provided 

 for the meteorite collection in connection with its reinstallation. 

 These labels are of black cardboard printed with aluminum ink and 

 of a size to fit the front of each block on which a specimen is mounted. 

 Each label shows the name of the meteorite, its date of fall, its classi- 

 fication, weight, and description of the specimen. The number of 



