6 EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



trausportation of wbicli to Washington several freight-cars were re- 

 quired; the Shepard collection of meteorites; the Wilson collection of 

 archaeological objects, uiore than 12,000 specimens ; the Lorrillard col- 

 lection of Central American antiquities, and very many others nearly 

 as extensive. 



In addition to these are the extensive collections obtained at the close 

 of the exhibition in Berlin, London, and New Orleans, the annually in- 

 creasing collections transferred to the Museum by the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, the U. S. Fish Commission, and the Bureau of Ethnology, be- 

 sides numerous contributions resulting from Government expeditions 

 as well as those made by officers of the Army and Navy, and other 

 Government officials. 



The storage slietls contain many hundreds of boxes of valuable ma- 

 terial which we have not room to unpack, and the great vaults under 

 the Smithsonian building, and many of the attic and tower rooms are 

 similarly crowded. 



The growth of several of the most important departments in the 

 Museum is seriously retarded owing to the fact that no exhibition space 

 is available for the collections, and that there is not even storage room 

 where incoming material can be properly cared for. 



The collection of birds, which so far as North America is concerned, 

 is the finest in the world, and now numbers nearly G0,000 specimens, is 

 very inadequately shown, and requires double the case room now avail- 

 able. 



The collection of mollusks, which is one of the most comjilete in the 

 world, and contains nearly 470,000 specimens, is at present almost en- 

 tirely unprovided for. 



The collection of insects, now numbering over 600,000 specimens, is 

 so far as North America is concerned, equally perfect, but is practically 

 without any exhibition space. 



The same is equally true in regard to the collections of birds' eggs 

 (more than 50,000 specimens), of reptiles (nearly 30,000 specimens), of 

 marine invertebrates (more than 515,000 specimens), of invertebrate 

 fossils (more than 100,000 specimens), and of fossil and recent jjlants 

 (nearly 50,000 specimens). 



Many vtiluable collections elsewhere than in Washington are at the 

 service of the Museum, but lack of space has compelled us to decline to 

 receive them. 



It should be borne in mind that under the roofs of the Smithsonian 

 and the new Museum buildings are grouped together collections which, 

 in London, Paris, or any other of the European capitals, are provided 

 for in different museums, for the accommodation of which a much larger 

 number of equally commodious buildings is found needful. 



The necessity for additional space then is constantly becoming greater, 

 and there is the further reason that by the action of the last Congress 

 the Armory building, assigned to the uses of the Museum in 1876, and 



