SECRETARY'S REPORT 19 



Engineering and industries. — Nearly 500 electronic and radio de- 

 vices collected and preserved by the late L. C. F. Horle, radio pioneer 

 and engineer, were presented by Mrs. Susan Horle. Of equal inter- 

 est is a small planing machine reputed to have been used to plane 

 bamboo for the filaments of early Edison lamps, presented by Dr. 

 Vannevar Bush. Allen Pope presented a gasoline engine made about 

 1898 by his father, Harry Pope, to power an experimental automo- 

 bile. An apparatus for taking core samples of the ocean bottom, 

 perfected by Dr. Charles S. Piggot and received from the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, has considerable historical significance 

 inasmuch as the subsequent development of this instrument has vastly 

 extended knowledge of the ocean floor. 



From Dr. Selman A. Waksman the Museum received the original 

 shaking machine and innoculating needle used by him in the experi- 

 ments that resulted in the discovery of the antibiotic streptomycin. 



Another outstanding accession was the gift by the Lithographers 

 National Association, Inc., of 142 lithographs, plates, and other tech- 

 nical materials which will be used in preparing a display of the his- 

 tory and techniques of offset lithography. Jose Ortiz Echague, a dis- 

 tinguished Spanish pictorial photographer, presented 15 of his carbon 

 fresson process prints. Six prints by the English pictorialist, the late 

 Alexander Keighley, were received from his estate. 



A scale model of the Fourdrinier papermaking machine was pre- 

 sented by the Hammermill Paper Co., and one of a modem cotton 

 ginning mill constructed at the United States Cotton Laboratory, 

 Stoneville, Miss., was transferred from the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. A pictorial quilt of Fort Dearborn, made about 1815, 

 was received from Mrs. John H. Snyder. 



As exchanges, the Museum acquired 20 specimens of woods of 

 Thailand from the Koyal Forest Department, Bangkok. Study sets 

 of the woods of New Zealand, Sarawak, and Iriomote Islands were 

 also added to the collection. 



History. — Of particular interest among the accessions was the gift 

 by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson of the laces, embroidered linens, and a large 

 gold, diamond, and lalique glass brooch presented to her when she 

 accompanied President Wilson to Europe in 1919. The collection of 

 dresses of the First Ladies of the Wliite House was augmented by the 

 dress given by Mrs. Harry S. Truman to represent the administration 

 of President Truman, 1945-1953. A black crepe dress worn by Queen 

 Victoria of the United Kingdom about 1880 was given to the costume 

 collection by Mrs. Langley Moore, of the London Museum of Costume. 



The Department of Justice transferred 93 pistols needed to com- 

 plete the series of modern firearms in the division of military history. 



Further additions to the Straub collection of gold and silver coins 

 were made by Paul A. Straub. 



