14 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^, 1909. 



and is of sufficient capacity for the purpose, will also be used for heat- 

 ing and lighting the older buildings. The necessary connections will 

 be made during the summer, and will result in a considerable saving 

 in cost. 



Anticijiating more rapid progress in the construction of the new 

 building, no appropriation had been requested for continuing the 

 leases on the outside rented buildings, Avhich had, therefore, to be 

 surrendered at the end of June, 1909. These structures contained an 

 exceedingly large amount of property, consisting of both specimens 

 and furniture, of which the only disposition possible was to transfer 

 it in bulk to one of the exhibition stories of the new building in which 

 the floors had been laid. This summary action prevented the assort- 

 ing and proj^er assignment of the material in advance of its removal, 

 as had been planned, and will necessarily cause some inconvenience 

 in the final adjustment of the collections. There were also several 

 workshops and laboratories in the rented buildings for which tem- 

 porary provision had to be made. 



NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 



By a third deed of gift, dated May 10, 1909, Mr. Charles L. Freer, 

 of Detroit, Michigan, added to his large donation of xlmerican and 

 oriental art the following examples acquired since the transfer of the 

 previous year, namely : Four oil paintings and 1 pastel, by Dwight 

 W. Tryon; 3 oil paintings and 1 pastel, by Thomas W. Dewing; a 

 portrait of ex-President Roosevelt, by J. Gari Melchers; 2 oil paint- 

 ings, 1 water color, 4 drawings and sketches, 1 album of sketches, and 

 3 etchings and dry points, by James McNeill Whistler; 4 oriental 

 paintings; 247 pieces of oriental pottery; and 25 miscellaneous exam- 

 ples of oriental art. 



Mr. William T. Evans, of New York, also continued to make im- 

 portant additions to his collection of the works of contemporary 

 American artists, which at the close of the year numbered 84 oil 

 paintings received in Washington, rejiresenting 58 artists. As the 

 Corcoran Gallery of Art required for its own use the space which has 

 been occupied by the Evans pictures, their transfer was arranged for 

 in June and carried into effect during the first week of July, 1909. 

 The walls and screens of the picture gallery in the Museum building 

 were entirely given over to this collection, and the new installation 

 displays the paintings to much better advantage than the previous 

 one. This change, however, necessitated the removal of the paintings 

 which have hitherto been hanging in the gallery to temporary quar- 

 ters in the Smithsonian building. 



It has now become imperative to provide some place where the 

 paintings belonging to the National Gallery of Art can be segre- 



