464 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



which are more elegant and in every respect to be preferred, as I 

 have mentioned on previous pages and shall mention again. Wooden 

 cases were chosen "because iron rusts in the damp climate of Chicago, 

 because it is cold to the hand and is ugly." That iron easily rusts in 

 Chicago is shown by the fact that in midsummer a pair of steel scissors, 

 if not cleaned daily, soon becomes covered with a coating of rust, 

 exactly as in the moist heat of the Tropics, but if the iron is suitabl}" 

 covered with a coat of varnish it does not rust, as is clearly shown by 

 the examples of iron work in John Crerar I^dbrary and the public 

 library in Chicago. The other objections made to the use of iron are, 

 if possible, still less tenable. The other furniture is also made of Avood, 

 and not of iron, as in the building of the historical society. 



A very remarkable peculiarity of the installation of the Newberr}^ 

 Librar}^, is that each principal science is assigned a room by itself, with 

 facilities for reading, so that any one who wishes to read on a subject 

 can go at once to the division relating to it, get his book very quickly 

 and proceed to work. This is certainh', in many cases, a great advan- 



FiG. 52 — Newberry LiVjrary. Plan of fourth floor. 



73, duplicates of the general library (56 by 72 feet); 74, corridor; 75, empty (50 by 62 feet); 76, empty 



(59 by 68 feet); 77, empty (72 by 62 feet); 78, bindery (56 by 72 feet); 82, women's closet; 85, shaft. 



tage, but often the division in which the book is to be sought is not 

 known, and related subjects may sometimes be so distributed in vari- 

 ous divisions that complications can not be avoided. For earnest 

 students, well acquainted w ith the library, the arrangement is certainly 

 of the very greatest use. Under this arrangement, besides the prin- 

 cipal reading room with 100 places, in the second story, there are two 

 reading rooms (medicine), with 32 places, each in the first stor}^, 3 in 

 second story (philosophy, history, art, and literature), with a total of 

 104 places, and two in the third story (genealogy and music, natural 

 sciences), each with 40 places, making a grand total of 316 places. 



As alread}' briefl}- mentioned, under the John Crerar Library, the 

 Newberry Library principally confines itself to certain classes of sub- 

 jects, and therefore sold to the former institution, in 1896, a part of 

 its scientific stock, namely, 6,331 volumes and 1,483 pamphlets, for 

 |116,000. The Newberry Library has the following 6 divisions: Medi- 

 cine, bibliography, history, philosophy, art and literature, science, and it 

 is strongest on the subjects of medicine, bibliography, American local 

 history, genealogy, music, and in periodicals and papers of societies- 



