148 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 



Number of visitors to the Museum and Smithsonian Buildings since 1881. 



BEQUESTS. 



Although the Miisenm has received many and some exceedingly 

 A^qluable additions to its collections by bequest, it is only recently 

 that financial assistance has been rendered it in this way. On the 

 death of Dr. Isaac Lea, publisher and eminent naturalist of Phila- 

 delphia, in 1886, the Museum found itself in possession of his unriv- 

 aled collection of fresh- water mollusks of the family Unionidse. His 

 daughter. Miss Frances Lea, retained a deep interest in this collec- 

 tion, becoming, in fact, its patroness, and by the frec[uent gift of 

 both specimens and of money for making purchases, she aided most 

 materially in its enrichment. It remains to-day by far the most 

 important and comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. 

 Married in 1890, the daughter lived but four years longer, and on 

 her demise she left to the Museum the fine series of gems and precious 

 stones which her father had also assembled. Her trust in both col- 

 lections was then assumed and faithfully continued by her husband, 

 the Rev. Dr. Leander Trowbridge Chamberlain, who was made an 

 honorary custodian in the Museum in 1897 and an honorary asso- 

 ciate in 1905. The report of last year contains a brief account of 

 Dr. Chamberlain's relations to the Museum and the announcement of 

 his death at Pasadena, Cal., on May 9, 1913. In his will, offered for 

 probate in New York City on July 23, 1913, generous provision is 

 made for perpetuating the assistance so long rendered in person, a 



