10 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 



funds permitted, and, as is well known, the maintenance of the 

 Museum and the library was long ago assumed by Congress, the Insti- 

 tution taking upon itself only so much of the necessary responsibility 

 for the administration of these and subsequent additions to its activi- 

 ties as would weld them into a compact whole, which together form 

 a unique and notable agency for the increase and diflPusion of knowl- 

 edge, for the direction of research, for cooperation with depart- 

 ments of the Government and with universities and scientific socie- 

 ties in America, and likewise afford a definite correspondent to all 

 scientific institutions and men abroad who seek interchange of views 

 or knowledge with men of science in the United States. 



Since that early day the only material change in the scope of the 

 Government Museum has been the addition of a department of 

 American history, intended to illustrate by an appropriate assem- 

 blage of objects the lives of distinguished personages, important 

 events, and the domestic life of the country from the colonial period 

 to the present time. 



The development of the Museum has been greatest in those sub- 

 jects which the conditions of the past 64 years have made most fruit- 

 ful — the natural history, geology, ethnology, and archeology of the 

 United States, supplemented by many collections from other coun- 

 tries. The opportunities for acquisition in these directions have 

 been mainly brought about through the activities of the scientific and 

 economic surveys of the Government, many of which are the direct 

 outgrowths of earlier explorations, stimulated or directed by the 

 Smithsonian Institution. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 af- 

 forded the first opportunity for establishing a department of the 

 industrial arts on a creditable basis, and of this the fullest advantage 

 was taken, though only a part of the collections then obtained could 

 be accommodated in the space available. The department or gallery 

 of the fine arts had made little progress, though not from lack of 

 desire or appreciation, until within the past eight years, during 

 which its interests have been markedly advanced. 



With the completion of the new large granite structure on the 

 Mall, the Museum has come virtually into possession of a group of 

 three buildings, in which there is opportunity for a proper sys- 

 tematic arrangement of its vast and varied collections as well as a 

 comprehensive public installation, and under these favorable con- 

 ditions it may be considered to have entered upon an era of re- 

 newed prosperity and usefulness. 



While it is the primary duty of a museum to preserve the objects 

 confided to its care, as it is that of a library to preserve its books 

 and manuscripts, yet the importance of public collections rests not 

 upon the mere basis of custodianship, nor upon the number of speci- 

 mens assembled and their money value, but upon the use to which 



