288 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Museum of Practical Geology, 

 which now have an agfj;regate of 989,388 K(]uare feet of floor space, soon to be 

 increased by 400,000 or 500,000 square feet in the new addition to the Victoria and 

 Albert Museum. In Berlin seven of the national museums relating to natural his- 

 tory and the industrial arts possess some 575,000 square feet of area, and the new 

 National History. Museum of Vienna has over 350,000 square feet alone. In our own 

 country, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, which, when 

 completed, will cover a ground area of over 5^ acres, already has 356,800 square feet 

 of floor space availa1)le. 



A study of the conditions in Washington has shown that to properly arrange the 

 national collections and provide for the growth of perhaps fifteen or twenty years 

 would require additional floor space to the extent of something like 400,000 or 

 500,000 square feet. If this were obtained through the construction of a new build- 

 ing having that amount of room, it would still be necessary to utilize both of the 

 present buildings, and this seems the preferable course to pursue. 



The efforts of Senator Morrill, though so persistent and well 

 directed, were not to bear their fruit, as he himself had intimated, 

 until after his lamented death, -and, in fact, there was to be a lapse of 

 five years before the culmination of his wishes was definitely assured. 

 His large share in the final result must not be forgotten. Four times 

 did he secure a majority vote in the Senate, and his influence in the 

 House is shown by the favorable consideration given his bills by the 

 committees to which the}^ were referred. His part, it is now recog- 

 nized, was in the direction of educating, of impressing upon Congress 

 the needs of the national collections, which he did by keeping the sub- 

 ject continually alive for over ten years, through the frequent intro- 

 duction of bills, the presentation of reports in which the requirements 

 of the Museum were set forth in detail, and his own impressive 

 remarks upon the floor. It came, therefore, to be not a question of 

 whether the Museum should have additional and more worthy quarters, 

 but rather one of finance; could the necessary funds, in the opinion of 

 Congress, be granted for the purpose? 



Accordingly, the following request, which appeared in the Book of 

 Estimates for 1908, occasioned no surprise: 



Plans for additional fireproof building, National Museum: For the preparation, 

 under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, of preliminary 

 plans for an additional fireproof building for the United States National 3Iuseum, to 

 be erected on the Mall between Ninth and Twelfth streets west, including the 

 expense of collecting necessary data, said plans and such recommendations thereon 

 as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution may deem necessary to be transmitted 

 to Congress at its next regular session, five thousand dollars, to be immediately 

 available. 



Note accompanying estimate. — In 1879 Congress appropriated $250,000 for the erec- 

 tion of a building to meet the urgent needs of the National Museum. The structure 

 then put up, and completed within the appropriation, was practically only a large 

 storehouse, with few of the facilities demanded by a large museum, and was at the 

 time expected to fill but a temporary want. It has in fact, however, been made to 

 serve a most useful purpose and should continue so to do, but its accommodations 

 have in all respects been long outgrown. By 1885 its exhibition halls and storage 



