APPENDIX 1 

 REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condi- 

 tion and operation of the United States National Museum for the fiscal 

 3'ear ended June 30, 1940. 



Funds provided for the maintenance and operation of the National 

 Museum for the year totaled $810,725, or $32,345 more than for the 

 previous fiscal year. The amount was reduced $5,500 however, by 

 reason of a compulsory administrative reserve. In addition to the 

 normal expenditures of the Museum, a deficiency appropriation made 

 $270,000 available to cover expenses in changing the electric current 

 for the Smithsonian group of buildings from direct to alternating, 

 and for installing new elevators in the Smithsonian and Natural 

 History Buildings. 



COLLECTIONS 



Additions to the great collections of the National Museum were 

 received in 1,960 separate accessions, totaling 212,474 individual speci- 

 mens. These were distributed among the five departments as follows : 

 Anthropology, 5,233; biology, 168,673; geology, 33,921; engineering 

 and industries, 2,019; and history, 2,628. For the most part these 

 acquisitions were gifts from individuals or represented expeditions 

 sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. All are listed in detail 

 in the full report on the Museum, published as a separate document, 

 but the more important are summarized below. The total number of 

 catolog entries in all departments now slightly exceeds 17,000,000. 



Anthropology . — ^Archeological material came from many parts of 

 the world: Eskimo and other artifacts from Siberia and northern 

 Alaska, stone and shell artifacts from Guam and Mexico, objects from 

 various parts of Egypt, and potsherds and casts from Argentina. In 

 ethnology, many objects were received representing the cultures of the 

 Eskimos and of various Plains and western Indian tribes. Africa was 

 represented by Bondu and Yoruba masks from West Africa and 

 Nigeria, respectively. The section of ceramics received 146 speci- 

 mens; musical instruments, 12, including a violin designed and con- 

 structed in the anthropological laboratory by Nicola Reale, partly 

 along the lines of a late Stradivarius ; period art and textiles, 153, 

 including many fine pieces of lace, ivory, and silver. In the division 

 of physical anthropology the following accessions are noteworthy: 



18 



