NATIONAL MUSEUM BiaLDINGS, 2()3 



The temporarv biiildinjis on the Mall and the rented l)uilding'.s now 

 used for the purposes of the Museum, toocther with the floor area 

 occupied in each, are as follows: 



Squurf feet. 



Natural history laboratory and stable, on Sinitlisonian <irouii(ls, bird taxider- 

 mists oil secontl Hoor - HI 5 



South shed, on Smithsonian grounds south of Smithsonian bniliiing, mammal 



taxidermists, 1 ,0(50 square feet; tin shop, 'MO 1 , 400 



Frame sheil adjoining building of U. S. Fish Commission on Armory square, 

 for storage, as follows: Anthropology, 5,562 square feet; biology, 1,818 

 square feet; geology, 103 square feet 7, 073 



Museum Annex at 431 Ninth street SAV., consisting of one brick building and 

 several frame sheds. Rented. Used for storage, as follows: Anthropology, 

 6,500 square feet; biology, 3,742 square feet; geology, 3,456 square feet; 

 superintendence and miscellaneous, 7,431 square feet 21, 120 



Building 309-313 Tenth street SW. Rented. Utilized for storage and other 

 purposes, as follows: Anthropology, 1,102 square feet; biology, 922 square 

 feet; geology, 3,053 square feet; label office, 729 square feet; heating and 

 power jjlant, 620 square feet. 6, 40(5 



Building at 217 Seventh street SW. Rented. Utilized as a carpenter shop, 



3,387 square feet, and anthropological workroom, 268 square feet 3, 655 



Building in rear of 915 Virginia avenue SAV. Rented. Utilized as a paint 

 and glass shop T 1 2, 925 



Total area 43 203 



NEW NATIONAL MUSEUM BUILDING. 

 HISTORY. 



In his report for 1882 Secretary Baird discussed the inadequacy of 

 the Museiuu ])uilding-, then scarcely more than a year old, to house the 

 rapidl}' increasino- national collections or to provide for the Museum's 

 own activities and those of the Geological Survey, the latter at that 

 time l)eing partly carried on under the same roof. It was proposed 

 that a third buildino- be erected on the southwest corner of the Smith- 

 sonian reservation for the g-eolog'ical and mineralogical divisions of the 

 Museum and for the accommodation of the Geological Survey. Sec- 

 retary Baird's remarks t)n this su))iect were as follows: 



Large and capacious as is the new Museum l)uilding, it has proved already inade- 

 quate to the existing requirements of the National Museum. Tiiis building was 

 designeil primarily to acconunodate the vast number of industrial and economical 

 exhibits i)resented to the United States by foreign governments at the close of the 

 Philadelphia Exposition of 1876. A special appropriation was made bj- Congress for 

 their transfer to Washington, and the armory building in the square between Sixth 

 and Seventh streets was assigned for their reception. It required nearly sixty large- 

 sized freight cars to transport the mass. 



Before the building was completed in 1881 and available for its purposes, almost 

 equally enormous additions had l)een made to the (rollections of the various (Jovern- 

 ment expeditions and of the Ethnological Bureau, wliich, together with many thou- 

 sands of objects previously in charge of the Smitlisonian Institution, but for which 

 there was no room in the old building, constituted a much larger mass than waa 



