EEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 17 



authorized by Congress in the sundry ci^'il act for 1904, its limit of 

 cost being fixed at $3,500,000. The preliminary plans received the 

 approval of a committee of the Board of Regents on January 27 

 of that year, but it Avas not until several months later that the Avork- 

 ing drawings were sufficiently advanced to make the initial contracts. 

 The ground was first broken on June 15 by the Secretary of the 

 Institution in the midst of an informal gathering. The necessary 

 excavations were completed during the summer and the heavy con- 

 crete foundations on November 9, 1904. Since then the work would 

 have gone on continuously and rapidly but for the delays occasioned 

 by the slow delivery of granite, as most other contracts have been 

 satisfactorily complied with. About four years, therefore, have 

 already been consumed in the building, and to these it now appears 

 certain that another will be added. 



The importance of this new building will be appreciated by all who 

 have kept in touch with the growth of the National Museum and the 

 progress of its activities, as described in these reports from year to 

 year. The number of specimens received has been enormous, aver- 

 aging nearly a quarter of a million annually, while the value of 

 the material thus brought together is beyond calculation. Nature, 

 as comprehended in the subjects of zoology, botany, geology, eth- 

 nology, and archeology, jDredominates over art in a very marked 

 degree, both in the extent and value of the collections and in the 

 progress made in their study, classification, and exhibition. It was 

 for the accommodation of these collections, whose diversit}^ and 

 importance are elsewhere explained and which illustrate the resources 

 and many economic problems primarily of the territory of this coun- 

 try, that a new building was most urgently demanded and the one in 

 question has been planned. When the transfer has been accomplished, 

 the present Museum building can be wholly given over to the arts 

 and industries, for which it Avas mainly constructed and has been 

 partly utilized. 



The new building is located on the Mall directly in front of the 

 Smithsonian building, w^hich it faces. It is a massive and dignified 

 granite structure, four stories high, with a frontage of 561 feet, a 

 depth of 365 feet, and a height of 82 feet. Its shorter axis is in a 

 line with the center of Tenth street, through which it may be reached 

 from Pennsylvania avenue, distant only three blocks. The principal 

 external feature of the building is a large square pavilion at the 

 middle of the south side, terminating in four pediments, one on 

 each face, at some distance above the main roofs. Inclosed by the 

 pavilion is a rotunda 80 feet in diameter, with four massive, orna- 

 mental piers to be surmounted by a curved ceiling reaching a height 

 of 127 feet 7 inches. The exterior structure of the rotunda will be 



