4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



during the period covered by this report. On March 22, 1956, the 

 new Bird Hall of the Natural History Museum was opened to the 

 public. It has been described by one internationally known ornitho- 

 logical expert as the most effective and most instructive museum 

 display of birds in the world. Dr. Herbert Friedmann, curator of 

 birds in the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, is an artist as well as a scientist, and he and his associates 

 developed this hall in such a way as to make it not only beautiful and 

 eye-arresting but also instructive. The notable success of this hall, 

 with its many new display features, illustrates a function of the 

 Smithsonian Institution that is not always remembered. This is an 

 age in which museums are becoming very common throughout the 

 country. Leadership at the Smithsonian in the development of effec- 

 tive museum displays is thus especially important because, as the 

 world's largest museum in number of cataloged objects, it almost auto- 

 matically sets for many other museums a pattern for guidance in 

 developing new and small museums throughout the country. There 

 is broad advantage, therefore, when the Smithsonian leads the way 

 in new museum display ideas as it has done in the Bird Hall and in 

 the other recently opened halls that are transforming the old 

 exhibitions of the Institution. 



During the year progress was made in the renovation of the second 

 secion of the American Indian Hall, the Engineering Power Hall, 

 and the Health Hall. The notable artistic work required for the back- 

 grounds of the new North American Mammal Hall was produced 

 under special contracts. Part of the Printing Art Hall in the old 

 Smithsonian Building was renovated and is now open to the public. 

 The lights that have been installed in this hall are, so far as is known, 

 the first artificial illumination of any kind ever to be used in this 

 section of the Institution. Progress was also made in preparing a hall 

 displaying the style of life of the early American colonies. 



Under the difficult conditions already referred to, improvements in 

 displays were made both in the National Collection of Fine Arts and 

 in the National Air Museum. Many of the plaster casts, which were 

 in far too great a variety of scales and which have long confused 

 the visitor on entering the Rotunda of the Natural History Museum, 

 have been placed on exhibit elsewhere or are in storage. 



Rehabilitation of the structures of the older Smithsonian buildings 

 went on during the year covered by this report. Painting of the re- 

 maining halls and courts in the Arts and Industries Building, started 

 last year, was completed. It is believed that some of this painting, 

 such as that on the underportions of the roofs, is possibly the first since 

 the building was completed in 1878. New and safer entrance and 

 exit doors were installed in this building. 



