KEPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 11 



tiously to make thi.s a museum for, as well as of, the people, and the 

 plans now being carried out are, in all their essential features, of his 

 making-. AVhile the assistants might be relied upon to arrange^ and 

 maintain tlie stud}' series in a manner acceptable to the specialist, the 

 interests of the public alwa3's remained in his immediate charge. He 

 was ever occupied in devising ways for so presenting the features of 

 nature and the acti\'ities of mankind that by the very force of his sur- 

 roundings the visitor was bound to receive and cai'ry witii him some 

 detinite impressions, some new bit of knowledge. Dr. (roode's labors 

 in this field ranged from the planning of the general scheme to the 

 most minute details of case architecture and fittings. His oihcial con- 

 nection with nearly all the important expositions oi the past quarter 

 of a century and his exhaustive studies of all the principal museums of 

 Europe and the United States gave him exceptional opportunities for 

 observation and experiment. Though a young man wIkmi he died, 

 none other had acquired so ripe an expericMice and uoik^ is more worthy 

 of being followed. 



An incidental though very popular educational feature of the 

 Museum, having for its purpose the promotion of scientitic teaching 

 throughout the country, has been the disti'ibution to schools and col- 

 leges of its duplicat(^ specimens, properly identified and la])eled, and 

 put up in carefully selected sets. Inade(|uate means have prevented 

 this measure from being carried out on the scale which the resources 

 of the Museum would admit of, 1)ut many hundreds of such s(>ts jiavo 

 alread}^ been given away. 



Scarcely a year passes that some expedition, either at home or 

 abroad, is not occupying the attention of the Museum, and through 

 this means its existence and aims are l)rought constantly and promi- 

 nently before the public. These expositions have of late followed one 

 another so closely and have riMpured such extensive preparations as to 

 interfere greatly with the ordinai'v ^\•ork of the Museum, but the 

 practice of introducing new and \ aiied features, of showing a fresh 

 series of objects or improved groupings in connection with each one, 

 insures a substantial gain, as the collections are retui'ned to Washing- 

 ton, besides fulfilling the important function of making nmseimi 

 methods known to the people of the Unit<Ml States and stinudating 

 the growth of nuiseums in many (piart(>rs. 



Though maiid}^ technical and most useful to the investigator, the 

 publications of the IViuseum can be classed, in a general way, as belong- 

 ing to its educational side, being the medium through wdiich the nature 

 and extent of its collections are made known. The Annual Report, 

 first printed as a separate volume of the Smithsonian Keport in 1S8-1, 

 and now in its nineteenth volume, consists,- besides the administrative 

 part, mainly of semi-popular papers on interesting portions of the 

 collections. The Proceedings and Bulletins are almost exclusively 



