26 EEPORT OF THE SECRETAEY. 



UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Five years have elapsed since (the latter part of 1881) tbe work of 

 moving into the new Mnseum building was begun. Two years ago I 

 reported that tbe packing boxes, several thousand in number, contain- 

 ing the accumulations of many i^revious years, had for the most part 

 been unpacked, and that the entire floor space of the building would 

 be soon occupied by exhibition collections. During the current year 

 this hoped-for result has been finally attained, and (with the exception 

 of one corner of one of the central halls still occupied by one or two 

 collections received at the close of the New Orleans exhibition, and 

 which have not been opened on account of delay in preparation of cases 

 for their reception) the entire floor space of about 100,000 square feet is 

 open to the public, and the collections arranged in accordance with the 

 provisional plan of installation. The work of mounting and labelling 

 is still in progress, and each month shows marked advances. From this 

 time forward, however, it will be imi)ossible to develop the collections 

 satisfactorily without additional space. The laboratories and workshops 

 are entirely inadequate for the storage of the unexhibited collections 

 and the accommodation of the preparators and mechanics, and the ex- 

 hibition halls do not afford suitable opportunity for the disiday of the 

 materials already in order for i^ublic examination. Each collection, 

 and above all each department, should have a hall of its own, more or 

 less comi)letely isolated from those which adjoin it. When several col- 

 lections are placed side by side in the same department much is lost 

 in respect to effect and convenience of study, not to mention the still 

 greater disadvantage of overcrowded space. 



As soon as Congress shall see fit to i)rovide another Museum building, 

 the collections being now so completely under control, and the force of 

 curators, assistants, and preparators so well organized and so thoroughly 

 prepared for the task, within eighteen mouths, or at the most two years, 

 a space twice as large as that now occupied can be filled with cases of 

 specimens thoroughly mounted for exhibition. 



The development of the Museum during the past year has been 

 unexpect:edly great, as may be judged from the fact that about fifteen 

 hundred separate lots of specimens have been received. • A certain pro- 

 portion of these were obtained from Government expeditions and surveys 

 and material of perhaps equal value through exchange, but by far the 

 largest part of the increase, both in quantity and value, has been in 

 the form of gifts. 



It is perhaps too early in the history of the Museum to take into 

 consideration the question of the extent and nature of its future devel- 

 opment. Such institutions are most successful and useful when the 

 result of natural processes of growth. 



We may profit to a certain extent by the experience of other nations, 

 but the National Museum of the United States will of necessity have 



