292 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



Having practically no l)ayenient, the only space available for the reserve storage, 

 workrooms, and offices is the small rooms of the central towers and corner paviMons, 

 except that some of the galleries designed for exhibition have from necessity been 

 turned over to these purposes. In these quarters the specimens are packed almost 

 solidly, in cases generally reaching to such a height as to make access to the upper 

 ones extremely inconvenient. The workers have scarcely room in which to place 

 their tables, and there is little space any where for the spreading out of specimens for 

 purposes of study and classification or of preparation for exhibition. 



In the Smithsonian building, which was originally designed to l)e used only in 

 small part for museum purposes, the conditions are similar. There are four exhi- 

 bition halls, three used for zoology and one for prehistoric archaeology. The latter, 

 occupying the entire upper floor of the main building, has, through the loosening 

 and fall of large areas of plaster from the ceiling, been pronounced unsafe and closed 

 to the public until funds can be obtained for its repair and renovation. The large 

 corresponding room on the ground floor has four galleries extending nearly its entire 

 length, which some fifteen years ago were turned into work and storage quarters 

 for several branches of zoology. They are overcrowded with cases and tables and 

 are, moreover, extremely unhealthful places for the assistants stationed there because 

 of the impure air arising from the exhibition floor below. 



In the basement is stored the greater part of the valuable alcoholic collection of 

 the Museum, in a series of dark, damp rooms, wholly unsuited to the purpose, and 

 where a great deal of work has to be carried on. The other workrooms and store- 

 rooms in the Smithsonian building, besides two or three small ones on the main 

 floor, are in the north tower, which is utilized for these purposes up to the height of 

 the seventh story. It is scarcely necessary to explain that many of these rooms, all 

 of which are very small, are inconvenient of access, and that specimens can be car- 

 ried to and from them only with difficulty. 



Many of the activities of the Museum and much the greater part of its storage have 

 for a long period had to be provided for in outside buildings, partly on the Mall and 

 partly rented at an annual expense of over $4,000. The taxidermists are quartered 

 in the upper pait of the Smithsonian stable and in a temporary frame structure back 

 of the Smithsonian building. On Armory square, adjoining the Fish Commission 

 building, is an old, dilapidated wooden shed filled with specimens. On Ninth street 

 SW. there is under lease a large area of land covered with wooden sheds containing 

 an immense amount of valuable collections and much other Museum property. The 

 greater part of the so-called Marsh collection of vertebrate fossils, which has been 

 valued at above $150,000, is still stored in a rented building at Tenth street and Mary- 

 land avenue, which also provides space for several preparators' workshops. Two 

 other rented buildings are likeM'ise required to accommodate the extensive carpenter, 

 paint, and glazing shops which are required for the making of furniture and for the 

 repairs about the main buildings. 



In order to carry out the purposes for which it exists, the National Museum requires 

 a greatly increased amount of space and that any additional space provided be better 

 adapted to its wants than that now occupied. 



For the exhibition collections a connected series of relatively large rooms or halls _ 

 is needed to permit of the arrangement of the specimens and groups of specimens 

 (many being of considerable size) in such manner as will best adapt them to the 

 comprehension of the public and, by the avoidance of crowding, allow them to be 

 viewed effectively. 



The record collections, commonly known as the reserve or study series, comprising 

 the bulk of the material in most departments, while demanding such a convenient 

 disposition as will insure the ready examination of specimens, require relatively less 

 space than the exhibition collections, as they can be much more compactly arranged 



