12 REPORT OF NATTOXAT, MT'SEUM, 1907. 



material in the Museum would Ih' irreatly curtaiUMl. AVhen it is pos- 

 sil)le to so aiTantre ti)e investipitor comes to Washin*rtoii : otherwise 

 such collections as he needs are sent to liim, whether he resides in 

 this country or abroad. In this manner practically every prominent 

 specialist throuirhout tlie world interested in the subjects here well 

 represented has had some use of the collections, and thereby the 

 National Museum has come to be recognized as a conspicuous factor 

 in the advancement of knowledge wherever civilization has a foot- 

 hold. 



SOME IMPORTAXT :MATTERS OI IIIK YEAR. 



The most noteworthj^ feature of the year was the remarkable ad- 

 vance made in the subject of the fine arts, assuring the definite 

 organization of the National (iallery of Art on a jiroper basis. 



The new granite building for the Museum was carried to such a 

 height that some idea may now be gained of its future appearance 

 and of its adequacy for accommodating those branches of the Na- 

 tional collections — natural history, geology, and anthropology — for 

 which Congress authorized its erection. The repairs in progress on 

 the present Museum building, including the renewal of the roofs and 

 the isolation of the several halls, conducted under the ordinary 

 api)ropriations, are accomplishing all that was anticipated, tlie thor- 

 ough renovation of the structure and its adaptation to the collections 

 bearing on the arts and industries, the extension of which has long 

 been retarded by the lack of space. 



The additions made to the collections of the ^luseum, not including 

 the fine arts, were comprised in 1,398 accessions and numbered about 

 250,000 specimens. They were obtained mainly through transfers 

 of material from several bureaus of the Government and through 

 donation and exchange from private sources, some of the gifts having 

 been especially noteworthy from their size and value. 



The most important accessions in ethnology came from the Philip- 

 ]nne Islands and the Kongo region of Africa. Excavations at the 

 famous Casa Grande ruin in Arizona were productive of a large col- 

 lection of ancient Indian relics, and many archeological specimens 

 w^ere also received from Central America and Mexico. The division 

 of physical anthropology was especially favoivd in scNcral of its 

 lines of inquiry, while the collection of firearms illustrating the 

 colonial and national military service of the rnitcd Slates was in- 

 creased to the e.xtent of making it the most complete of its kind in 

 existence. 



The liureaii of Fisheries transmitted excei)tionally large and valu- 

 able collections in zoology, ol)taine<l during recent investigations in 

 dirterent regions, the most important being tlie results of an expedi- 

 tion by the steamer Albatross to the northwestern part of the Pacific 



