REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 13 



our homes. The object of these collections and of the work that will 

 be put upon them is both cultural and practical, and, as in the more 

 progressive of the countries of the Old World, they are in large part 

 designed to furnish very material aid toward the promotion and bet- 

 terment of art and industrial pursuits in the United States. 



For its public exhibitions the department has been allotted the 

 entire floor and gallery space in the older Museum building and the 

 three lower halls in the Smithsonian building. The latter will be 

 used by the division of graphic arts, but owing to extensive repairs 

 and alterations under way the installation of the materials of this 

 division has necessarily been deferred and an account of them must 

 be left for a future rej^ort. In this connection, therefore, attention 

 can be directed only to the conditions in the Museum building and to 

 the work there in progress. Before so doing, however, it is impor- 

 tant to explain that ample as may seem the accommodations for ex- 

 pansion afforded by these two buildings the time is near when, in the 

 ordinary course of events, these facilities will be entirely exhausted. 

 But the extraordinary must also be looked for, and as instances may 

 be cited the tender, since the close of the year, of a collection of 

 extreme historical importance, valued at many thousands of dollars, 

 which alone would fill one of the large halls, and there is also another 

 collection consisting mainly of works of art of at least the same 

 extent and of even greater value, bequeathed to the Museum, for 

 which there will be no suitable place in either building. These con- 

 ditions operate to the disadvantage of the Museum in two directions 

 in respect to the arts and industries. Great gifts can not be solicited 

 with the laiowledge that no place exists for their accommodation, 

 while, on the other hand, would-be benefactors are deterred from 

 making presents for the same reason. The public has fully 

 awakened to the possibilities of its Museum, and to the benefits which 

 it might, and to a large extent already does, confer, and it is solely 

 in the interest of the public welfare that the Museum seeks to increase 

 its opportunities for doing good. 



A detailed account of the older Museum building was published 

 in the annual report for 1903. Its principal features with special 

 reference to the interior are briefly as follows: The main part of 

 the building is square, measuring 300 feet long on each side, and con- 

 sists of a single story, varying greatly in height in its different sec- 

 tions. At each corner of the square is a relatively large pavilion and 

 in the middle of each fagade is a broad tower which project 12^ feet 

 from the main building line and increase the length of each frontage 

 to 325 feet. Architecturally the building, which is of brick, consists 

 of a central rotunda from which four naves extend in the direction 

 of the four main points of the compass, in the form of a Greek 

 cross. Following the outer walls and connecting the naves are eight 



