6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1906. 
While it is the primary duty of a museum to preserve the objects 
contided to its care, as it is that of a library to preserve its books and 
manuscripts, yet the importance of public collections rests not upon 
the mere basis of custodianship, nor upon the number of specimens 
assembled and their money value, but upon the use to which they are 
put. Judged by this standard, the National Museum may claim to 
have reached a high state of efficiency. From an educational point of 
view it is of great value to those persons who are so fortunate as to 
reside in Washington or who are able to visit the nation’s capital. In 
its well-designed cases, in which every detail of structure, appoint- 
ments, and color is considered, a selection of representative objects is 
placed upon view to the public, all being carefully labeled individually 
and in groups. The child as well as the adult has been provided for, 
and the kindergarten pupil and the high-school scholar can be seen 
here, supplementing their class-room games or studies. Under 
authority from Congress, the small colleges and higher grades of schools 
and academies throughout the land, especially in places where muse- 
ums do not exist, are also being aided in their educational work by 
sets of duplicate specimens, selected and labeled to meet the needs of 
both teachers and pupils. 
Nor has the elementary or even the higher education been by any 
means the sole gainer from the work of the Museum. To advance 
knowledge, to gradually extend the boundaries of learning, has been 
one of the great tasks to which the Museum, in consonance with the 
spirit of the Institution, has set itself from the first. Its staff, though 
chiefly engaged in the duties incident to the care, classification, and 
labeling of collections in order that they may be accessible to the pub- 
lic and to students, has yet in these operations made important dis- 
coveries in every department of the Museum’s activities, which have 
in turn been communicated to other scholars through its numerous 
publications. But the collections have not been held for the study of 
the staff nor for the scientific advancement of those belonging to the 
establishment. Most freely have they been put at the disposal of 
investigators connected with other institutions, and, in fact, without 
the help of many such the record of scientific progress based upon the 
material in the Museum would be greatly curtailed. When it is possi- 
ble to so arrange the investigator comes to Washington; otherwise 
such collections as he needs are sent to him, whether he resides in this 
country or abroad. In this manner practically every prominent spe- 
cialist throughout the world interested in the subjects here well rep- 
resented 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 foothold. 
