70 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



invertebrates, etc. Mr. C. H. Townsend seut from California a collection 

 of birds, mammal skins, and tisbes, and from Alaska a skin canoe, fossil 

 shells, actinians, bird skeletons, mammals, birds, etc. 



6. REPORT UPON THE EXHIBIT MADE BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITU- 

 TION AT THE >:EW ORLEANS EXPOSITION. 



BY R. EDWARD EARLL. 



In accordance with an executive order of May 13, 1884, there was 

 organized a Board of Government Commissioners charged with making 

 the necessary arrangements for a general Government display at three 

 exhibitions, namely, the Southern Exposition at Louisville, Ky., open- 

 ing August 16 and continuing until October 25; the Cincinnati Indus- 

 trial Exposition to be held at Cincinnati, Ohio, between September 3 

 and October 4 ; and the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Ex- 

 position at ^ew Orleans, beginning December 16, 1884, and continuing 

 till May 31, 1885. The board consisted of one representative from etvch 

 of the Government Departments; and, in addition, a representative 

 from the Smithsonian Institution, including the U. S. National Museum 

 and the U. S. Fish Commission; and one from the Department of Agri 

 culture. 



To this board were referred all questions relating to the participation 

 by the Government in the various exhibitions. Each Kepresentative 

 was charged with the preparation of an exhibit for the Department 

 with whicli he was connected, and the funds placed to its credit by Con- 

 gress were to be disbursed under his direction. Prof. G. Brown Goode, 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the 

 U. S. National Museum, who had represented the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion at the Fisheries Exhibition at Berlin in 1880, and that at London 

 in LS83, was nominated by Professor Baird, to represent the three or- 

 ganizations above named, and a day or two later he received an official 

 appointment from the President of the United States. The board held 

 an informal conference in Washington, beginning May 7, for the pur- 

 pose of drawing up an outline of the work in connection with the several 

 expositions, and for submitting estimates of the amount of money re- 

 quired by each Department for preparing a satisfactory exhibit. The 

 passage of the bill authorizing the expenditure of money in connec- 

 tion with these exhibitions was considerably delayed, and the funds 

 did not become available until July 7. At this time there were placed 

 to the credit of the Smithsonian Institution $75,000 for the preparation 

 of exhibits for the exposition at New Orleans, with $2,500 additional 

 for Louisville and $2,300 for Cincinnati. Only a few weeks remained 

 before the opening of the two last-named exhibitions, and the exhibit 

 for each of these, owing to the limited time remaining, was necessarily 

 less complete than it would otherwise have been; though the work was 

 pushed vigorously, l)eginning immediately after the appropriations be- 

 came available, and continuing till a few days before tlie opening of 



