236 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUHEUM, 1903. 



NATURAL-HISTORY WORKSHOP. 



Ill order to provide more extensive and more suitable quarters for 

 the preparatory and photographer of the Museum, with immediate 

 reference to preparations for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibi- 

 tion, a small two- story brick l)uilding" was constructed in 1875 on the 

 Mall, a short distance west of the southwestern corner of the Smith- 

 sonian building'. It consists of a main structure, about 30 by 2Ti 

 feet, and of two wings, each about 28 by 17 feet, on the east and west 

 sides. The latter have been used as a stable and a carriage house and 

 were somewhat enlarged in 1901 and 1902 at the expense of the 

 Smithsonian fund, their present dimensions lieing those given above. 

 The original Congressional appropriation for this building amounted to 

 $3,000, but, proving inadequate and in order to hasten its completion, 

 the Institution advanced an additional sum of ^3,927.84, which was 

 refunded by Congress in 1877. 



The upper part of the main building was iitted up as a photographic 

 laboratory, the remainder of the main building, with its basement 

 and the rooms over the carriage house, being assigned to the work 

 of taxiderm}^, preparation of skeletons, modeling, the painting of 

 models, etc. In the course of a few j^ears the accommodations which 

 it furnished were greatl}- outgrown, and certain divisions of the work 

 were transferred elsewhere. At the present time onl}^ the upper story 

 is occupied for any of these purposes, and principalh^ by the bird 

 taxidermists. In 1881 the department of photography was removed 

 to the Museum building, and the old rooms were allotted to the use of 

 the photographers of the U. S. Geological Survey and the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, who remained there until 1881. 



ARMORY BUILDING. 



This building, assigned in 1877 to the purposes of the National 

 Museum and now occupied as the headquarters of the U. S. Fish 

 Commission, is located at the southern end of that part of the Mall 

 lying between Sixth and Seventh streets. It was erected under an 

 appropriation of $30,000, granted in the civil and diplomatic act for 

 1856, for the use of the local volunteers and militia and as a place of 

 deposit for the military trophies of the Revolutionarv and other wars, 

 and for newly invented and model arms for the military service. It 

 is a rectangular brick structure, with many large windows, measuring 

 about 102 feet long, 58 feet wide, and 1(3 feet high to the gable. It 

 has four stories, including an attic, which afford a combined floor 

 space of over 20,000 scpiare feet. The building remained dedicated to 

 its original uses until after the close of the civil war, when, the militia 

 of the District not being organized, it was left unoccupied. 



The use of this building was granted to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 in order to provide for the temporary storage of the large collections 



