THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 491 



THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By IIok. CHAELES D. WALCOTT, 

 director of the united states geological survey. 



A NATIONAL museum should be the center of scientific ac- 

 tivity in the country in which it is located. In England the 

 British Museum is the Mecca of scientific men. In Paris, Copen- 

 hagen, Vienna, Berlin, and other capitals of Europe the national 

 museum stands in similar relations to the scientific work of its own 

 country. Such a relation our National Museum should hold to sci- 

 entific men and affairs in America. It should receive and take 

 care of all material that has been or may be valuable for investiga- 

 tion or for the illustration of the ethnology, natural history, geol- 

 ogy, products, and resources of our own country, or for comparison 

 with the material of other countries. It should furnish material 

 for all kinds of scientific investigations which deal with specimens 

 or types, and give aid to such researches and publish their results. 

 It should present by illustration such of the results of the scientific 

 investigations of its corps of officers as are susceptible of such repre- 

 sentation. It should co-operate with all the higher educational 

 institutions of learning in the country, and assist in the promotion 

 and diftusion of knowledge in all lines of investigation carried on 

 by it. It should provide library facilities, and aid all post-graduate 

 students who may wish to take advantage of the provisions made by 

 the Government for scientific research. 



History akd Present Organization. — Beginning in a small way 

 in the Patent-Office building early in the century, the " Govern- 

 ment " collections of " natural products " were transferred to the 

 custody of the Smithsonian Institution in 1858, where they were 

 installed along with the larger and more valuable collections of the 

 institution. Twenty-three years later, in 1881, the present Na- 

 tional Museum building was ready for the great mass of material 

 that had accumulated in the Smithsonian building, and had been 

 transferred from the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. Out 

 of these heterogeneous collections Dr. G. Brown Goode, under the 

 direction of Secretary Baird, of the Smithsonian, organized a mu- 

 seum of broad scope, based on all that had proved best in museum 

 experience to that time. Faithfully he carried forward the work 

 until September, 1896, when his health broke under the strain of 

 too many duties, and one of the best museum administrators the 

 world has yet produced, if not the very best one, passed from us. 

 In January, 1897, 1 was placed in temporary charge of the adminis- 

 tration of the museum as an acting Assistant Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution^ and remained in charge until July 1, 1898. 



