NATIONAL MUSEUM BUILDINGS. 281 



found liimself unal:)le to longer give these collections house room; and since the 

 building in which they were kept is not fireproof, and the destruction of the collec- 

 tion would be an incalculable loss to science, there was nothing to do but to receive 

 this, and up to the present time a considerable portion of the collection still remains 

 in danger of destruction by fire, at the Department of Agriculture. There is also a 

 large amount of other material which ought to be arranged for public exhibition in 

 a lirei)roof building which is now in the inflammable wooden structure adjoining the 

 Dt'partnient of Agriculture, and which the Secretary is desirous of transferring, if 

 accommodation can be found for it. 



All the collections of the (ieological Survey are stored in this building, and a con- 

 siderable number of the scientific experts employed by the Survey have office room 

 and accommodations to enable them to study in tlie Museum building. These 

 accommodations have become absolutely inadequate, and there is no more room to 

 receive the collections which the Director of the Survey deems absolutely necessary 

 to have here in AVashington in connection with his investigations of the material 

 wealth of the country. 



The crowded condition of theexhibiticm halls has been dwelt upon, but that of the 

 storage rooms is still more congested. In the basement of the old Smithsonian 

 building, in its towers, and in various small rooms about the new building, there is 

 a space equivalent to perhaps 200,000 cubic feet, crowded to its utmost capacity with 

 boxed material. This material is all carefully recorded, and the location and con- , 

 tents of every box is definitely fixed, so that wlien necessary any desired object can 

 be referred to; but satisfactory use of the collections is impossible. In one basement 

 room, for instance, ■ re crowded 50,000 skins of birds, and 50,000 in an adjacent gal- 

 lery, altogether tw^elve times as many as are shown in the exhibition hall. So 

 (tlosely are they crowded that it is impossible even to rearrange tliem, and their 

 study is attended with great difficulty. It is desired to separate from among the.se 

 the duplicates for distribution to the colleges and si-hools throughout the country, 

 and an attempt has been made to accomplish this, but it has been found practically 

 impossible. 



The great collection of alcoholic fishes (the result in part of the explorations of the 

 Fish Commission), the most extensive in America, and one of the most extensive 

 in the world, is stored in two basement rooms and only accessible with the greatest 

 difficulty. Furthermore, the crowding of such a mass of alcoholic material in a 

 small space is very dangerous, and in case of fire would lead to <lisastrous results. 

 Properly equipped museums, like the British Museum in London, have a special 

 firejjroof building for collections of this kind, separate from other buildings, and 

 provided with special devices for the prevention of fire. 



In addition to the storage within the fireproof buildings there are a number of 

 sheds whose capacity is roughly estimated at 170,000 laibic feet, which are packed 

 with valuable material, and in which most of the workshops are placed. Two of 

 these are immediately south of the Smithsonian building, another at the southeast 

 corner of the Museum building, two others to the southwest of the old Armory build- 

 ing, and another, temporarily hired, halfway between the Museum and the Capitol. 

 Until 1888 two floors of the old Armory building were used for the storage of Museum 

 material. It then became necessary to give up one floor to accommodate the increas- 

 ing necessities of the Fish Commission, and in 1894 to give it up entirely to the Com- 

 mission. At that time an appropriation was made to rent storage rooms in the city. 

 Suitable storage rooms can not be rented; we have had to move twice and are now 

 being forced to a third move. These moves are destructive and expensive. 



The two sheds adjoining the Armory building are getting old and some of the 

 timbers are rotting away. They can not be repaired because there is no place to put 

 the material they contain while the work is being done, and they are so crowded 

 that temporary readjustments for this i)urpose are not possible. 



