4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



of the symmetrically matching west wing. Work on the building of 

 this wing is expected to start in calendar year 1963. 



In 1953 the 72-year-old Arts and Industries Building was rather 

 generally known in the American press as the "nation's attic." This 

 old building for years had led most of the rest of the museums of the 

 world in the popularity of its exhibits as measured by annual attend- 

 ance, but it was almost pathetically inadequate to accommodate its 

 great collections or to provide adequately for the tremendous crowds 

 that pushed into it day after day. In 1955 Congress authorized the 

 construction of a new building to be known as the Museum of History 

 and Technology of the Smithsonian Institution. This additional mag- 

 nificent building is now nearing completion and will soon be equipped 

 with exhibits and be open to the public. The old Arts and Industries 

 Building will not be abandoned but will be used for special exhibits 

 and for the display of important objects that are appropriate for its 

 large halls. 



During the decade under review, historians of science and tech- 

 nology, some of them recent additions to the staff of the Institution, 

 have systematized the collections of the Smithsonian in both history 

 and technology. They have developed modem exhibits and have pre- 

 pared scholarly publications to present to the world the results of their 

 investigations of the collection of treasures housed at the Smithsonian. 

 Until the beginning of this decade most of the publications of the 

 Smithsonian Institution were in fields of study related to the sciences 

 of astronomy, anthropology, botany, zoology, and geology. Today 

 more than 250 monographs and books have been published to provide 

 a scholarly basis for the understanding of some of the great collections 

 of objects in the Museum of History and Technology. 



These new Smithsonian publications and the new exhibits in the 

 fields of liistory and technology have brought t-o the attention of col- 

 lectors all over America, and indeed all over the world, the significance 

 of the Smithsonian's work. New interest in the Institution's collec- 

 tions in the field of the decorative arts, and in the collections of furni- 

 ture, silver, ceramics, textiles, and prints, has been especially notable. 

 Increasingly during these years Smithsonian experts have taken 

 important parts in the programs of seminars and museum conferences 

 dealing with the preservation and understanding of objects in these 

 fields. New methods of examination, interpretation, exhibition, and, 

 above all preservation have been developed during this time in the 

 workrooms and laboratories of the Smithsonian. 



During this period the Institution has participated in excavations 

 at a number of colonial American sites. Nearly all this work has been 

 fully or partly supported by funds provided from private sources. 

 As a result of these studies new knowledge has come concerning the 



