THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 497 



lections now in the possession of the Government, ilhistrating the 

 development and progress of man and his works, if properly placed 

 on exhibition, would occupy the entire space in the present museum 

 building. The great collections in biology, botany, economic geol- 

 ogy, general geology, and paleontology should be placed in a build- 

 ing properly constructed for their study and exhibition. A con- 

 siderable portion of the collections are still in the Smithsonian 

 building, where the crowding is scarcely less than in the museum 

 building. 



Moreover, in the present building there is great deficiency in 

 laboratory facilities. Curators and assistants are hampered for 

 want of room in which to lay out, arrange, classify, mount, and 

 label specimens. There should also be rooms in which students 

 could bring together and compare various series of objects, and have 

 at hand books and scientific apparatus. The present museum build- 

 ing contains a few rooms suitable for the purposes mentioned, but 

 the majority have to be used as storerooms, laboratories, and offices, 

 and are therefore too much crow^ded to serve in any one of these 

 capacities. Owing to the pressure for space, courts, halls, and gal- 

 leries intended for exhibition purposes, both in the Smithsonian 

 building and in the museum building, are unavoidably occupied to 

 a considerable extent as laboratories and storerooms. There is 

 also need of storage room, an increase of the scientific staff, and a 

 purchasing and collecting fund. The American Museum of I^atu- 

 ral History expends annually $60,000 for the increase of its col- 

 lections; the ISTational Museum has from $3,000 to $4,000 for the 

 purpose. 



The immediate and greatest need, however, is a suitable museum 

 building. The present building is 375 feet square. The space on 

 the ground floor is 140,625 square feet, and that in the galleries 

 16,000 square feet; exhibition space, 96,000 square feet. The en- 

 tire cost is $315,400. 



For comparison with the above figures, the following statistics 

 relating to the American Museum of Natural History in New York 

 are given: Total floor space, 294,000 square feet, divided as fol- 

 lows: Exhibition space, 196,000 square feet; laboratories, library, 

 etc., 42,500 square feet; workrooms, storage, etc., 42,000 square 

 feet; lecture hall, 13,500 square feet. These figures include the 

 portions of the building now being completed. The total cost of 

 the museum to date, including the completion of the new wings, 

 is $3,559,470.15. The buildings, and the care of them, are pro- 

 vided for by the city of New York. • The expenses of the scientific 

 staff, increase of collections, etc. (the income for which for the pres- 

 ent year is approximately $185,000), are defrayed from endow- 



VOL. LV, — 36 



