REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



United States Signal Service, was transferred to the custody of the 

 Smithsonian after the close of the war. In it has been assembled 

 a collection of aircraft and accessories in production during the war 

 period. 



Changes during the year in the organization of the Museum, aside 

 from the separation of the National Gallery of Art, included the re- 

 moval of two divisions from the department of anthropology at the 

 beginning of the year — the division of graphic arts being trans- 

 ferred to the department of arts and industries and the division of 

 history becoming an independent division reporting directly to the 

 administrative assistant in charge of the Museum. In biology, the 

 division of marine invertebrates was subdivided on February 1, 

 1921, the collections of mollusks being segregated by the reestablish- 

 ment of the division of mollusks. In the department of arts and 

 industries a combination of all the strictly engineering units was 

 effected in May, 1921, by the appointment of the curator of mechani- 

 cal technology, Mr. Carl W. Mitman, as curator also of mineral tech- 

 nology. He will be aided by an assistant curator in each division. 



The Museum lost by death during the year Dr. J. P. Iddings, asso- 

 ciate in petrology, Messrs. Nelson R. Wood and William Palmer, 

 taxidermists, and Mr. T. W. Keese, watchman. 



As at present organized, the Museum comprises, besides an admin- 

 istrative office, 4 scientific and technical departments, and 1 independ- 

 ent division, with a total of 49 recognized subdivisions. The scien- 

 tific staff of the Museum comprises 94 persons, of whom less than 

 half receive pay from the Museum. This by no means represents, 

 however, all the scientific workers on the collections, for the Museum 

 also has much regular assistance from employees of various govern- 

 mental agencies in Washington in classifying, arranging, and plac- 

 ing on exhibition specimens in their respective fields of investigation. 



As the museum organization of the Government, the National Mu- 

 seum has important assistance from the executive departments and 

 other governmental agencies. Particularly was this true during the 

 fiscal year 1921. Credit is due to the Navy Department for trans- 

 porting and installing in the Museum building many attractive ex- 

 hibits in the World War collections; to the War Department for 

 similar service, including the detail to the Museum of one officer for 

 several months; to the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and 

 the Interior, and the Bureau of American Ethnology for many valu- 

 able contributions of specimens and much assistance in classifying 

 and labeling objects in the Museum ; to the Interior Department also 

 for transferring exhibition cases no longer needed by it; and to the 

 Post Office Department for large series of valuable and interesting 

 postage stamps. 



