302 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896, 



of marine life were deposited in the Museum. Later the work of the 

 Commission turned toward the investigation of the phenomena of the 

 deep sea, and in 1882 a seagoing steamer, the Albatross, was built, 

 and extensive sounding and dredging operations in great depths were 

 carried on. 



The collections made during the progress of this work, and deposited 

 in the Museum, were of the highest scientific interest, and the results 

 already published by Goode, Verrill, Bean, Rathbun, Smith, and other 

 naturalists have attracted worldwide attention. In many other ways, 

 which can not be detailed in the present connection, the work of the 

 Commission was of direct and indirect benefit to the Museum, and 

 the cooperation of these two governmental organizations has continued 

 until the present. 



Not many years after the organization of the Commission the ques- 

 tion of the desirability of holding a great world's fair to commemorate 

 the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence began 

 to be agitated in the country. The movement culminated in the organ- 

 ization of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, held in Philadelphia. 

 This event was destined to have a more important effect upon the 

 National Museum than any which had occurred since the founding of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



The Government determined that the various departments and 

 bureaus should make extensive exhibits indicating their several func- 

 tions, and on January 23, 1874, the President appointed a Government 

 board to have general charge. The Smithsonian Institution was repre- 

 sented by Professor Baird. In the first j)lans of the board the National 

 Museum exhibit was included under that of the Institution, and the 

 Fish Commission apparently under the Interior Department. They 

 included also an item of $200,000 for an exhibition building which 

 should be "capable of removal to Washington after the close of the 

 Exhibition, to be used as a National Museum at the capital of the 

 nation."^ Congress, however, saw fit to modify these plans and pro- 

 vided for the erection of a general Government building, to be paid for 

 pro rata from the appropriations of the several departments and bureaus, 

 and to be sold at the close of the Exhibition. An appropriation of 

 $07,000 was made for the Smithsonian Institution, and of $5,000 for 

 the Fish Commission, the provision for the National Museum being 

 included in the former. When the several officers of the board began 

 to examine the situation in detail it became apparent that different 

 bureaus would duplicate one another's exhibits unless some compro- 

 mise were made. Accordingly the exhibits of the Institution, the 

 National Museum, and the Fish Commission were merged into one 

 comiirehensive exhibit; while, on the other hand, the National Museum 

 cooperated with the Indian Bureau of the Interior Department in an 



' Smithsonian Report, 1875, page 59. 



