EEPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 7 



subjects with which it is even in the remotest degree concerned, 

 the correspondence which this involves now constituting one of its 

 heaviest tasks. 



The history of the Museum, as pointed out by the lute Dr. Goode, 

 may be divided into three epochs, which he characterized as follows: 



First, the period from tlie foundation of the Smithsonian Institutif)n to 1857, dur- 

 ing whicli time specimens were collected solely to serve as materials for research. 

 No special effort was made to exhibit them to the public or to utilize them, except 

 as a foundation for scientific description and theory. 



Second, the period from 1857, when the Institution assumed the custody of the 

 'National Cabinet of Curiosities," to 1876. During this period the Museum became 

 a place of deposit for scientific collections which had already been studied, these col- 

 lections, so far as convenient, being exhibited to the public and, so far as practicable, 

 made to serve an educational purpose. 



Third, the present period (beginning in the year 1876), in which the Museum has 

 undertaken more fully the additional task of gathering collections and exhibiting 

 them on account of their value from an educational standpoint. 



During the first period the main object of the IMuseum was scientific research; in 

 the second, the establishment became a museum of record as well as of research, 

 while in the third period has been added the idea of public education. The three 

 ideas — record, research, and education — cooperative and mutually helpful as they 

 are, are essential to the development of every great museum. The National Museum 

 endeavors to jiromote them all. 



In the same connection. Dr. Goode also defined the scoj^e and objects 

 of the Museum in the following concise manner: 



It is a museum of record, in which are jireserved the material foundations of an 

 enormous amount of scientific knowledge — the types of numerous past investigations. 

 This is especially the case with those materials that have served as a foundation for 

 the reports upon the resources of the United States. 



It is a museum of research, which aims to make its contents serve in the highest 

 degree as a stimulus to inquiry and a foundation for scientific investigation. Research 

 is necessary in order to identify and gniup the objects in the most philosophical and 

 instructive relations, and its officers are therefore selected for their ability as investi- 

 gators, as well as for their trustworthiness as custodians. 



It is an educational museum, through its policy of illustrating by specimens every 

 kind of natural object and every manifestation of human thought and activity, of 

 displaying descriptive labels adapted to the popular mind, and of distributing its 

 publications and its named series of duplicates. 



AS A MUSEUM OF RECORD. 



In its function as a museum of record the growth of the National 

 Museum has been unprecedented, due mainly to the rapid exploration 

 and dev^elopment of a rich and extensive country under the liberal 

 and progressive policv of the Government. From scientific institu- 

 tions throughout the world, from foreign governments, and from indi- 

 viduals abundant stores of great value have been received, either as 

 gifts or through the medium of exchange of specimens, and a small 

 appropriation in recent 3'ears has permitted of some purchases to 

 supply desiderata. 



