EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 7 



collections and for the packing and unpacking of boxes of specimens is 

 urgently required. I have therefore submitted an estimate to Congress 

 for an appropriation of $10,000 "for the erection of a fire-proof brick 

 storage building east of the National Museum, for receiving, unpacking, 

 assorting, and storing the natural history collections of the Government, 

 to replace the wooden structures now used for the purpose." 



Necessity for an additional Museum Building. — No better illustration 

 can be had of the increase in the collections of the National Museum 

 than the fact that an additional building is urgently required for their 

 proper accommodation, as explained in the last report (1882). 



In 1875 the collections then in charge of the Smithsonian Institution 

 were comfortably accommodated within the limits of the Smithsonian 

 building, in rooms having an aggregate area of 30,000 square feet. 

 They consisted principally of specimens of natural history and eth- 

 nology ; confined almost entirely to North America, with the exception 

 of objects of Polynesian manufacture, forming part of the Wilkes col- 

 lection. 



In 1875 an appropriation was made by Congress to enable the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the Fish Commission to prepare an exhibit of 

 objects illustrating the resources of the United States, as derived from 

 the animal and mineral kingdoms, and, with the assistance of a special 

 appropriation to the Indian Bureau, of a collection of North American 

 anthropology. A large sum of money was expended in the preparation 

 ot this exhibit, which was forwarded to Philadelphia in 1876, aud con- 

 stituted a part of tbe Government display which attracted much atten- 

 tion. 



At the close of the Philadelphia Exhibition very large donations 

 were made to the United States by foreign countries, including both the 

 official commissioners and individual exhibitors. Many objects of much 

 interest were contributed on the same occasion from American displays. 

 These collections, Idling some fifty freight cars, were brought to Wash- 

 ington, and were stored for a time in the Armory building, assigned by 

 Congress for their reception. 



After several fruitless efforts an appropriation of $250,000 was ob- 

 tained for the purpose of putting up an inexpensive edifice for the 

 storage of these articles, aud their transfer was begun in the autumn 

 of 1881, but little more than two years ago. 



Since then large numbers of collections of very great importance have 

 come to hand, chief among them being the gatherings of the United 

 States Geological Survey, and of the Ethnological Bureau, made on a 

 scale of unexampled magnitude, and well befitting the operations of a 

 nation like the United States. The many scientific explorations, made 

 either separately by the Smithsonian Institution, or conjointly with the 

 United States Signal Service or other Bureaus or bodies, the work of 

 the Fish Commission, and the enormous aggregate of many smaller col- 

 lections, have tended largely to increase the material to be provided for. 



