16 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



of the Museum's work 'and for increasing its usefulness to the people 

 of the country. The Museum, with its vast collections, serves the 

 public not as it would and could but as its limited financial resources 

 permit. One forward step has been made, however, in the reclassi- 

 fication of salaries which becomes effective on July 1, 1924, and as 

 a whole the scientific force of the Museum is at last to receive ade- 

 quate compensation. 



The outstanding feature of the year was the gift to the Nation 

 for exhibition in the National Museum of a complete American 

 colonial room, presented by Mrs. Gertrude D. Kitter, of Washington, 

 D. C. This notable gift includes wall paneling from the old Bliss 

 homestead at Springfield, Mass., 'and a remarkable collection of fur- 

 niture, china, glassware, pewter, pictures, and textiles belonging to 

 the same period of early American history. The room is set up and 

 arranged in one of the Museum rooms exactly as it would have 

 appeared in 'a colonial home of the period of about 1750. 



A program of intensive work on the development of the Loeb col- 

 lection of chemical types was made possible this year through the 

 accrued interest on the Loeb fund. A curator of the collection was 

 appointed and the advisory committee reorganized, and it is ex- 

 pected that in a year or two the Value of such a type series of chem- 

 icals will be amply shown. 



The Museum received during the year 362,942 specimens, a notable 

 increase over last year in numbers and also in scientific value. 

 Over 8,000 duplicate specimens classified and labeled were dis- 

 tributed for educational purposes to schools and colleges. A some- 

 what detailed account of the accessions in the various departments of 

 the Museum is given in the report of the administrative assistant in 

 charge, and only a few of the more notable acquisitions will be m^en- 

 tioned here. In anthropology a noteworthy collection of etlinological 

 material from the Philippines, made by the late Capt. E. Y. Miller, 

 was presented by Mrs. Florence G. Miller, and a number of speci- 

 mens representing several Indian tribes of South America was the 

 gift of Dr. D. S. Bullock. A valuable series of unique ancient 

 earthenware bowls from the Mimbres Valley, N. Mex., was presented 

 by the Bureau of American Ethnology. A series of prehistoric 

 antiquities from ancient sites in France, Belgium, and Germany was 

 added by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka as the result of his recent trip to 

 Europe. 



The collections received in biology greatly surpass those of recent 

 years both numerically and in scientific importance, the latter point 

 being emphasized by the addition of a large number of species and 

 genera new to the Museum, many gaps in the collections having been 

 filled. The outstanding accession of the year is the gift by Dr. 



