Institutes, Museums, Libraries 285 



medical instruments (stethoscopes, microscopes, hearing aids, syringes, surgical and 

 dental instruments, military medical kits, etc.). There is also a fine collection of 

 coins, stamps, medals and plaquettes of medical interest. The collections are well 

 catalogued and classified, but there is no general description of them. 



The Army Medical Museum is now a subdivision of the Armed Forces Institute 

 of Pathology which unites under one general head: a) Institute of pathology (at old 

 address); b) Army Medical Museum (old address but in another building, on other 

 side of the street); c) Registry of Pathology (at old address), and d) Medical Illus- 

 tration Service (in building of the museum). Both museum and library originated 

 after the Civil War and were developed by John Shaw Billings (1838-1913), 

 about whom see the article in Isis 26 referred to above. 



Smithsonian Institution — United States National Museum: 



Collections concerning the history of science and technology are found in at least 

 three departments. Ethnology or Anthropology, Engineering and Industries, and the 

 recently created National Air Museum. Reports concerning the activities of these 

 departments appear every year in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The activities of the first-named of these departments are well illustrated by its 

 publications. Otis T. Mason (Curator of Ethnology): The origins of invention 

 (419 p., ill., London 1895). Walter Hough (Curator of Anthropology): Synoptic 

 series of objects in the U. S. National Museum illustrating the history of inventions 

 (Proc. USNM, 60, art. 9, 47 p., 56 pi., 1922), Fire as an agent in human culture 

 (USNM, Bull. 139, 284 p., 41 pi., 1926); Collection of heating and lighting utensils 

 (USNM, Bull. 141, 118 p., 99 pi., 1928); Fire-making apparatus (Proc. USNM, vol. 

 73, art. 14, 72 p., 11 pi., 1928), etc. 



The Museum of engineering and industries is one of the four divisions of the 

 Department of Engineering and Industries. It has a very large collection of objects 

 and instruments illustrating technical inventions, chiefly those made within the nation 

 after the Revolution. Some of the early items are models such as were necessary 

 at the beginning of last century in support of an application for a U. S. patent. Par- 

 ticular items or groups of items have been described by the former curator, Carl W. 

 MiTMAN, or by his assistants, in engineering or industrial journals, but there is no 

 general catalogue. 



Though the Department collections include some of the earliest accessions of the 

 Smithsonian Institution (founded in 1846), its history begins about 1880; its organi- 

 zation was conceived by G. Brown Goode, who was much interested in the history 

 of American science. The present curator is Frank A. Taylor. See his articles 

 The background of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of engineering and industry 

 (Science 104, 130-32, 1946); A National Museum of science, engineering and indus- 

 try (Scientific Monthly 63, 359-65, 1946), plans for a larger Museum to be built in 

 Washington. 



The National Air Museum: 



The objects illustrating ballooning and aviation were detached in 1946 from 

 the Department of Engineering and Industry, in order to constitute the kernel of a 

 new museum (Public Law 722, 22 August 1946). 



The present curator is Carl Weaver Mitman "Assistant to the Secretary [of tlie 

 Smithsonian Institution] for the National Air Museum." 



Carnegie Institution. See Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



COMPANY MUSEUMS 



A good'many industrial firms have established museums relative to their own past 

 achievements or to the achievements of the branch of industry which they represent. 

 That custom originated in Germany where intense industrial activities were com- 

 bined with a deep sense of tradition and a genuine historical spirit. It was strength- 

 ened by the zeal of Franz Maria Feldhaus,"*^ who organized investigations in the 



1°^ His methods are explained and illustrated in his journal Geschichtsblatter fiir Technik, 

 Industrie und Gewerbe (vol. 11, 1-10, 1927). 



