REPORT 



UPON 



THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1898. 



BY 



Charles D. Walcott, 



Acting Assisfavt Secretary, Smithsonian Iriatitution, in charge of the U. S. National 



Museum. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



ORGANIZATION.^ 



In the iutroductioii to the Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1897, attention was called to a new plan of organization, which went 

 into effect July 1, 1897, and the statement was made that the results 

 of its operations would be considered in the Report for 1898. 



The various divisions and sections of Anthropology, Biology, and 

 Geology, which had previously been conducted independently of one 

 another, the curators and custodians reporting directly to the Assistant 

 Secretary in charge of the Museum, were united under three head cura- 

 tors, one of anthropology, another of biology, and a third of geology. 

 This secured direct expert supervision and properly correlated the 

 work of each department. Before, such correlation had been impossi- 

 ble, owing to the large number of independent heads of sections and 

 divisions in each department, who planned and executed the work more 

 or less independently of one another. The official correspondence was 

 also more closely centralized in the executive office of the Museum. 



Anthropology. — In the Department of Anthropology a large amount 

 of work was done by Mr. W. H. Holmes in reorganizing and installing 

 the exhibits, under a general scheme approved early in the year. The 

 organization of the department, the personnel, and the details of the 

 work will be found in his report. There are a number of sections that 

 have not yet been assigned to any division, remaining for the present 

 under the direct supervision of the head curator. Moreover, the clas- 

 sification of material and the division of work among the various mem- 

 bers of the present staff, so far as it has progressed, is largely tentative, 

 owing to the staff being composed of specialists in limited portions of 

 the field of anthropology; this necessitates a somewhat arbitrary 



The organization of the staff is given in Appendix I. 



