2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



By means of research publications, popular publications, museum 

 activities, lectures, international exchange of scientific documents, 

 and a voluminous correspondence, the Institution during the current 

 year, as in Plenry's time, has effectively diffused knowledge. By 

 investigations in a wide range of fields, the Smithsonian has also 

 continued the research for which it has long been world-famous and 

 that has increased the true sum of human knowledge. It can there- 

 fore be said with assurance that the current year has been outstanding 

 in the two main activities which both Smithson and Henry saw as 

 fundamental at the Smithsonian. 



Much progress was made during the year on the new buildings that 

 will soon help in a most basic way these great twin objectives. Con- 

 struction progressed on the additional monumental building of the 

 Institution which when completed will house and display the notable 

 collections of the Smithsonian in the fields of history and technology. 

 The laying of the cornerstone of this building, with appropriate cere- 

 monies, took place on May 19. Work was also begun on the building 

 of the long-needed East Wing of the Natural History Building. De- 

 tails of these building operations are given on later pages of this 

 report. 



Good progress was also made in the continuing gradual renovation 

 of all exhibits now displayed in existing Smithsonian buildings. It 

 may be appropriate and useful to recapitulate here the work that 

 has been completed in this great program since it began some eight 

 years ago, inasmuch as such a summary has not previously been pre- 

 sented in any annual report of the Institution. 



1. FOSSIL PLANTS AND INVERTEBRATES 



The new Hall of Fossil Plants and Invertebrate Animals shows in 

 a modem series of artistically arranged exhibits the scientific record 

 of the early development of life on this planet. At the very beginning 

 of the hall care is taken to show and explain what a fossil is, what 

 animals and plants have been found as fossils, how animals become 

 entombed in rocks, and how the geologic time scale was formed. A 

 special case displays what may well be the oldest fossil known. 

 Visitors see not only some of the Smithsonian's outstanding fossil 

 preparations but also full-scale reproductions by means of colored 

 models of typical groups of the plants and animals that lived all over 

 the globe in the warm seas of millions of years ago. An exhibit called 

 "Giants of the Past" shows some of the largest known invertebrate 

 fossils. As in all modern Smithsonian exhibits, this hall displays only 

 a small fraction of the total collections of fossil plants and inverte- 

 brates that belong to the Institution. Those selected for public display 

 are shown in such a way as to give each visitor a vivid, interesting, 

 and accurate introduction to the basic science of paleontology. The 



