340 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 90 



of the Department of Vertebrate Fossils in 1886, and the appointment 

 of Prof. O. C. Marsh as honorary curator in 1887, the southeast 

 court space was assigned to the exhibition of fossil vertebrates, inver- 

 tebrates, and plants. 



There was a small intermittent growth of the exhibition collec- 

 tions, the preparation and installation that was necessary being done 

 by the osteologists under the direction of F, A. Lucas. 



In December 1890 John B. Hatcher was given temporary appoint- 

 ment as assistant to Professor Marsh for the purpose of arranging 

 and classifying the collections that had been assembled. The exhibi- 

 tion was given a fresh impetus in July 1891 with the arrival from New 

 Haven of the second consignment of the Marsh collection. It con- 

 sisted of 380 prepared specimens made up as follows : 3 ceratopsian 

 skulls, including the type of Triceratops elatus; 10 titanothere skulls, 

 representing several genera; skulls and other remains of TeJeoceras 

 fossiger; other Tertiary fossils and some rare plaster casts. Owing 

 to the gradual growth of the exhibition series, especially augmented 

 by the acquisitions from the Marsh collection, in 1898 the entire 

 southeast court was given over to vertebrate fossils. 



In 1899 a papier-mache cast of the skeleton of Dinoceras presented 

 by Professor Marsh was mounted and placed on exhibition. In 1902 

 a mounted skeleton of Hesjjerornis regalis^ first shown at the Pan 

 American Exposition in Buffalo, was returned to the Museum and 

 placed in the permanent exhibition series. With the acquisition of 

 the Marsh collection and the employment of trained preparators from 

 1900 onward, there was a slow but steady growth and improvement 

 of the exhibition collections. In 1903 the type skeleton of Thespesius 

 {Trachodon) amiectens w-as mounted under the direction of Lucas, 

 the first articulated skeleton of a dinosaur to be exhibited in the Na- 

 tional Museum. This specimen has the further distinction of being 

 the second dinosaur skeleton to be thus exhibited in North America, 

 first honors going to a companion skeleton in the Peabody Museum 

 of Natural History at Yale that was placed on exhibition in 1901. 



When the writer came to the National Museum in November 1903, 

 the ground floor of the southeast court in the Old National Museum 

 Building was entirely occupied by an exhibition of vertebrate fossils. 

 This exhibition was all arranged by Mr. Lucas as acting curator, 

 although his main duties were elsewhere in the Museum. The out- 

 standing specimens comprised skeletons of Megaceros hihernicus, Thes- 

 pesius {Trachodon) minectens^ Hesperoimis regalis, and a skeleton of 

 BasUosauTus cetoides^ the bones of the last being laid out in order on a 

 shelf in a wall case on the north side that extended entirely across 

 the court. A modeled restoration of the skeleton (later sent to the 



