12 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 6 



The lecture will be published in the General Appendix to the 1936 

 Smithsonian Report. 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION EXHIBIT AT THE TEXAS CENTENNIAIi 

 EXPOSITION, DALLAS, TEX. 



The Smithsonian Institution exhibit at the Texas Centennial Ex- 

 position June 6 to November 30, 1936, was concerned wholly with a 

 presentation of the laboratory methods and processes involved in 

 the preparation and restoration of a fossil dinosaur skeleton and 

 with a picturization of the scientific knowledge of prehistoric rep- 

 tilian life derived from laboratory studies. The exhibit formed one 

 of a series of scientific exhibits entitled "The Story of Life", prepared 

 by the combined efforts of the United States Public Health Serv- 

 ice, the colleges and universities of Texas, and the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



The Smithsonian Institution exhibit occupied a rectangular bay, 

 the back wall of which was about 30 feet wide and the side walls of 

 which were, roughly, 30 feet and 20 feet, respectively, in length. A 

 railing prevented the visitors from approaching the rear wall closer 

 than 15 feet and the side walls 3 feet. There was thus made available 

 between the railing and the rear wall an area of approximately 15 

 feet by 30 feet for the carrying on of the regular laboratory work in 

 plain view of the visitor. Here daily during the course of the expo- 

 sition Norman H. Boss, chief preparator of the division of vertebrate 

 paleontology in the National Museum, and an assistant, Gilbert 

 Stucker, of Chicago, who was employed for the period of the exposi- 

 tion, carried on the intricate and varied work involved in working up 

 in relief parts of the Jurassic dinosaur Caraarasaurus. 



On the back wall of the working area there was mounted a full-size 

 line drawing of Camarasaurus and suj^erposed on the drawing was 

 the original skull and the jBrst five vertebrae, which had been pre- 

 pared in the National Museum laboratory prior to the exposition. 

 These original parts, together with those gradually exposed by the 

 preparators and the full-size profile drawing, gave the visitor a clear 

 idea of the complicated nature of the preparatory work in this 

 scientific field. 



Five large masses of plaster-bandaged fossil in the rock, one weigh- 

 ing approximately 2i/^ tons and another II/2 tons, were shipped to 

 Dallas and constituted the working material during the exposition. 

 These masses are in the same form as received in 1923 by the United 

 States National Museum from the Dinosaur National Monument 

 quarry in Utah. Tlie finished pieces were exhibited on available floor 

 space in the working area of the exhibit. 



