AN ACCOUNT OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 305 



ing or cligDified as would have resulted from the use of a more expen- 

 sive system of construction and more costly materials. 



While the building was under construction. Congress decided that 

 the United States Government should be represented at the Berlin 

 Fisheries Exhibition of 1880 by the Fish Commission. Professor Baird, 

 then both Secretary of the Institution and Fish Commissioner, appointed 

 G. Brown Goode. the curator of the Xatioual :\Iuseum, as his deputy at 

 the exhibition. By this fortunate combination of circumstances, Dr. 

 Goode. the working head of the ^rational Museum, was afforded an 

 opportunity to study the museums of Germany and other parts of 

 Europe, and brought home with him a knowledge of the most approved 

 methods of installation of collections, labeling, and storage, which was 

 invaluable. Far more fortunate was it that the Museum at this critical 

 time in its history had as its curator a man of such surpassing merit as 

 the lamented editor of this volume.^ Gifted with a philosophical mind, 

 a profound love of nature, a marvelously retentive memory, and untiring 

 energy, he acquired a range of knowledge and a grasp of affairs which 

 astonished his associates, while his modesty, gentleness, and love of 

 fair play attracted to him and bound to his service men of the most 

 diverse capacities and opinions. His genius was known to Secretary 

 Baird. but hitherto he had not found a sufficiently wide field for the 

 exercise of his powers. The reorganization of the Museum afforded an 

 opportunity, and Baird gave him free scope for the development of his 

 I)lans. aiding him as no one else could have done, from the stores of a 

 lifetime of exj)erience aloug the same lines. 



Out of the heterogeneous materials accumulated by the Government, 

 especially as a result of the Centennial Exhibition, Dr. Goode organ- 

 ized, under the approving guidance of Secretary Baird, a public museum 

 of wide scope, attractive, instructive, orderly, and full of the elements 

 of life. He elaborated with the greatest pains a philosophical and 

 comprehensive classification for the collections of the Museum, and 

 planned a complete reorganization of the staff' of curators and assist- 

 ants. He devised an entirely new series of cases and other fixtures, 

 for the installation of both the collections exhibited to the public and 

 those reserved for the use of investigators, adopting the best features 

 then developed in European museums, and adding many of his own 

 invention. 



This regeneration of the National Museum soon made itself felt in 

 similar organizations throughout the United States and in other parts 

 of the world, and the methods of installation and labeling employed 

 in Washington have been widely copied. 



The iutiueuce of the National Museum has not, however, stopped 

 here. Already at the Berlin Fisheries Exhibition of 1880, with the 

 exijerience gained during the Centennial Exhibition, Dr. Goode was 



' The History of the Smithsouian Institution, from which this article is extracted, 

 was edited by Dr. Goode. 



NAT MUS 96 20 



