16 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 



repairs is now $5,000 less that it was 10 years ago, when the Natural 

 History Building was new and naturally required comparatively 

 little in the way of repairs. The amount for furniture and fixtures 

 is likewise $5,000 less than it was for a number of years prior to the 

 war when prices of labor and material were from 50 to 75 per cent 

 lower. 



Of the $64,202.70 appropriated this year for printing, $37,500 was 

 the regular item, and $26,702.70 a deficiency item for the completion 

 during the year of an unusual accumulation of work at the Govern- 

 ment Printing Office. The Museum printing had for several years 

 been held back for lack of sufficient available funds. 



A comparison of the operating expenses of the United States Na- 

 tional Museum with museums of similar size and scope in this coun- 

 try and abroad is extremely interesting, and brings out very strongly 

 the inadequacy of the appropriations, especiallj^ with reference to the 

 salaries paid to all classes of its employees. The scientific staflf is 

 paid from 40 to 50 per cent less than scientific men of the same grade 

 in similar museums elsewhere. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT. 



The Aircraft Building was opened to the public on October 7, 1920, 

 wiiereby the Museum added about 14,000 square feet of floor space to 

 its exhibition halls. This metal structure, erected by the War De- 

 partment on the Smithsonian Reservation in 1917 for the use of the 

 United States Signal Service, was transferred to the custody of the 

 Smithsonian after the close of the war. In it has been assembled a 

 collection of aircraft and accessories in production during the war 

 period. 



In the upkeep of the buildings the more important work performed 

 in the Natural History Building included the construction of a locker 

 room for the engineer force at the east entrance, ground floor; the 

 painting of the ceiling and side walls of the corridor and the rooms 

 in the east hall, ground floor, and of the corridor around the south, 

 east, and west sides of the auditorium; the laying of cork flooring 

 in the west and northwest ranges, ground floor; installing rubber 

 interlocking tile flooring in two elevators at the north entrance ; and 

 the painting of all concrete floors in corridors of the west hall, 

 ground floor; also, the painting of the exterior surfaces of all metal 

 window frames on the first and second floors and the wooden frames 

 and sashes on the ground and third floors, and the preparation of the 

 east court and planting the same with lawn grass. 



In the Arts and Industries Building the interior work included 

 the pointing up and painting of walls and ceilings in several exhibi- 

 tion halls and office rooms and, in the latter, the replacing of worn- 

 out floors with new ones of pine. On the exterior, the snow brakes 



