REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 9 



SPACE. 



The growth of the TJ. S. ]^ational Museum was rapid under the suc- 

 cessful charge of tlie Jate Dr. G. Browu Goode. When the character 

 of the building and the funds available for its maintenance are consid- 

 ered, it compares favorably with any modern museum. It has received 

 large collections from the scientilic departments of the Government, and 

 through i)rivate contribution (with some additions by purchase and 

 exchange), all of which have been accommodated as well as could be in 

 the inadequate laboratories, storerooms, and exhibition space. The 

 galleries just completed have added 16,000 square feet of floor space, 

 which will help to a certain extent to relieve the crowded condition of 

 the exhibition halls and courts below. As an illustration of the pres- 

 ent conditions and the necessity for more room, attention is called to the 

 anthropological collections, which illustrate the development and pro- 

 gress of man and his works. If tlie material now in the possession of 

 the Government in this department should be properly placed on exhi- 

 bition, it would occupy the entire space in the present Museum build- 

 ing. The great collections in zoolog}^, botany, economic geology, gen- 

 eral geology, and paleontology should be entirely removed and placed 

 in a building properly constructed for their study and exhibition. 



Laboratory space. — In the present building there is a great defi- 

 ciency in laboratory facilities. Curators and assistants are hampered 

 for want of room in which to lay out, arrange, classify, mount, and 

 label specimens. There should also be rooms in which students could 

 bring together and compare various series of objects, and have at 

 hand books and scientific apparatus. The present Museum build- 

 ing contains a few rooms suitable for the purposes mentioned, but 

 the majority have to be used as storerooms, laboratories, and offices, 

 and are therefore too much crowded to serve in any one of these 

 capacities. Owing to the pressure ibr space, courts, halls, and gal- 

 leries intended for exhibition purposes, both in the Smithsonian 

 building and in the Museum building, are unavoidably occupied to a 

 considerable extent as laboratories and storerooms. This lack of labo- 

 ratory space is extremely detrimental to the interests of the Museum. 



Quarters for storage. — Beyond six small basement rooms under two of 

 the corner pavilions the present building has absolutely no provision 

 in the way of basement or other rooms for the storage of collections 

 which come in from day to day from Government field collectors or 

 private donors, or such as are separated for distribution or held for the 

 use of students. To remedy this defect many expedients have neces- 

 sarily been resorted to, such as placing storage cases (faced with 

 mahogany to make them presentable) in the exhibition halls, hiring 

 storage rooms in private buildings, and filling up ofiQces, entrances, 

 staircase-landings, and passageways not absolutely indispensable. 

 The ingenuity which has been exercised in this direction by some of 

 the curators is very great and the annoyances that are daily endured 

 in the interest of x)reserving the collections deserve notice. What is 



