56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



terials for the group on salmon spawning. Exhibits designer Barbara 

 Craig prepared the architectural layout for this hall. Graphic design 

 is by Joseph Shannon. 



Planning for the Hall of Plant Life in the Museum of Natural 

 History has continued at an accelerated rate since January 1964. 

 At that time a planning committee was established consisting of 

 Assistant Director R. S. Cowan, chairman, and curators M. E. 

 Hale, Jr., T. R. Soderstrom, Stanwyn G. Shetler, Dan Nicolson, and 

 Richard H. Eyde. This group met regularly with exhibits designer 

 Rolland O. Hower to develop specific plans for the construction of 

 exhibits. Preliminary statements of the intent and content of each 

 unit are in preparation and a study model of a proposed organization 

 of exhibits in this large hall was prepared by Mr. Hower. In the 

 late spring three members of the committee visited localities in the 

 eastern part of the United States to select study sites in which to 

 obtain data for construction of some of the habitat groups. Prepara- 

 tion of botanical models for use in the exhibits in this hall was in 

 progress in the exhibits laboratory. 



Planning and design of the new physical geology and meteorite ex- 

 hibits were completed in preparation for the beginning of construction 

 in this area in the summer of 1964. Additional space for the gem 

 exhibits will be provided in the same construction project. The physi- 

 cal geology exhibit will interpret the nature and properties of materials 

 composing the earth, the distribution of materials throughout the 

 globe, the processes by which they are formed, altered, transported, 

 and distorted, and the nature and development of the landscape. 

 The new hall has been planned by curator-in-charge of the division 

 of mineralogy and petrology, George S. Switzer, and associate cura- 

 tors Paul E. Desautels and Edward P. Henderson. The hall layout 

 has been prepared by exhibits designers Dorothy Guthrie and Barbara 

 Craig. 



The fourth and last of the remarkable series of mural paintings 

 in the Hall of the Age of Mammals in North America, representing 

 a Pliocene mammalian assemblage was completed in June by the 

 artist Jay H. Matternes. 



Associate curator Clayton E. Ray initiated preliminaiy planning 

 of displays in the hall to be devoted to life of the Pleistocene, the 

 geologic epoch immediately preceding the present, in consultations 

 with members of the exhibit staff. Much of the time of the paleon- 

 tological laboratory staff was devoted to repairing and remounting 

 skeletons of the various larger Pleistocene mammals that were pre- 

 viously exhibited and in restoring new skeletal remains for presenta- 

 tion in tliis hall. 



Four halls of the Department of Science and Technology in the east 



