KEPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 7 



sul)ject.s with which it is even in the remotest degree concerned, the 

 correspondence whicli tliis involves now constituting one of its heaviest 

 tasks. 



The liistory of the Museum, as pointed out by the kite Dr. Goode, 

 may he divided into three epochs, whicli he characterized as follows: 



First, the i>eri()il fruiu tlic fouiulatiuu of tlie Sinithsoiiian Institution to 1857, dur- 

 ing wliich time specimens were eollecte<l solely to serve as materials for research. 

 No special effort was made to exhibit them to the jjuhlic or to utilize them, except 

 as a foundation for scientific description and theory. 



Second, the period from 1857, when the Institution assumed the custody of the 

 "National Cabinet of Curiosities," to 1876. During this period the Museum became 

 a place of deposit for scientific collections which had already been studied, these col- 

 lections, so far as convenient, being exhibited to the public and, so far as practicable, 

 made to serve an educational purjiose. 



Third, the present period (beginning in the year 1876), in which the IMuseuni has 

 undertaken more fully the additional task of gathering collections and exhibiting 

 them on account of their value from an educational standpoint. 



During the first period the main object of the Museum was scientific research; in 

 the second, the establishment became a museum of record as well as of research, 

 while in the third period has been added the idea of public education. The three 

 ideas — record, research, and education — cooperative and mutually helpful as they 

 are, are essential to the development of every great museum. The National Museum 

 endeavors to promote them all. 



In the same connection. Dr. Goode also defined the scope and objects 

 of the Museum in the following concise maimer: 



It is a museum of record, in which are preserved the material f(jundations of an 

 enormous amount of scientific knowledge — the types of numerous past investigations. 

 This is especially the case with those materials that have served as a foundation for 

 the reports upon the resources of the United States. 



It is a museum of research, which aims to make its contents serve in the highest 

 degree as a stimulus to inquiry and a foundation for scientific investigation. Research 

 is necessary in order to identify arid group the objects in the most philosophical and 

 instructive relations-, and its officers are therefore selected for their ability as iuAesti- 

 gators, as well as for their trustworthiness as custodians. 



It is an educational museum, through its j^olicy of illustrating by specimens every 

 kind of natural object and every manifestation of luiman thought and activity, of 

 displaying descriptive labels adapted to the popular mind, and of distributing its 

 publications and its named series of duplicates. 



AS A MUSEUM OF RECORD. 



In its function as a museum of record the growth of the National 

 Museum has been unprecedented, due mainly to the rapid exploration 

 and development of a rich and extensive country under the liberal 

 and progressive polic}' of the Government. From scientific institu- 

 tions throughout the world, from foreign governments, and from indi- 

 viduals abundant stores of great value have been received, either as 

 gifts or through the medium of exchange of specimens, and a small 

 appropriation in recent years has permitted of some purchases to 

 supply desiderata. 



