Oct. 1895. Annual Report of the Director. 15 



corresponding to the numbers of the catalogue. Correspondence 

 relating to offers of material are preserved in the same manner and an 

 alphabetical card index containing all names that enter into the 

 correspondence is kept for each set of files. 



The catalogue of specimens or "Department Inventory" is pre- 

 pared by the Curators of departments. A set of books has been pro- 

 vided each department and the inventorying is being pushed as 

 rapidly as time and circumstances permit. The cataloguing of 

 specimens is, of course, an immense undertaking, but the progress 

 thus tar made is satisfactory. In this direction the following has 

 been accomplished: Department of Anthropology, 15,000 cards; 

 Department of Botany, 9,041 entries; Department of Geology, 8,000 

 entries, 4,000 cards; Department of History, 1,455 entries; Depart- 

 ment of Industrial Arts, 3,261 entries; Division of Transportation 

 7,251 entries; Department of Zoology, 388 entries; Department of 

 Ornithology, 1,900 entries; Library, 9,551 entries. 



Accessions. — A detailed list of all of the accessions received for 

 the Museum, either from donations, loans, deposits, for examination, 

 Museum expeditions, and purchases, accompanies this report. As 

 will be observed, the number of the accessions during the 

 year has been quite large; statistics do not signify much where 

 there is such a variation in the size and character of the accessions 

 themselves. Your attention is therefore directed to a few of the 

 larger and more notable acquisitions. The material received 

 through Museum expeditions, especially that of Mr. Allison V. 

 Armour, referred to elsewhere, has added a large amount of valuable 

 scientific material to the collections of several departments. The 

 donations and purchases in Egyptian archeology has enabled the 

 Department of Anthropology to devote an entire hall to their 

 exhibition, and helps to fill the great need of material illustrating the 

 archeology of the Old World. Friends of the Museum have been 

 liberal in their donations to the Department of Botan}', and particular 

 mention should be made of the generous contributions of Mrs. M. S. 

 Snyder, who has sent extensive collections of both phanerogamic and 

 cryptogamic plants. The Department of Geology, besides acquiring 

 a large amount of new material by the recent visit of the Curator to 

 the New England States, has been the recipient of numerous 

 individual specimens and complete suites of ores and minerals. An 

 equipment of microscopic and scientific apparatus for cutting sections 

 of rock and mineral for microscopic examination will enable the Curator 

 to carry qjx lines of investigation that would otherwise have been im- 

 possible. In the Department of History the parts of the group of the 

 Columbus Quadriga were assembled in the Museum model room and 



