SECRETARY'S REPORT 27 



play cases is in progress in the halls. All this behind-the-scenes activ- 

 ity is being directed toward the opening of these halls in 1955. 



The modernized and wholly revised hall now designated as "High- 

 lights of Latin American Archeology" was completed and formally 

 opened to the public on Pan American Day, April 21, 1954. Repre- 

 senting a noteworthy advance over the previously existing poorly 

 lighted and overcrowded arrangement of archeological specimens, the 

 new exhibits installed present man's cultural development from his 

 earliest begimiings in Latin America to the high civilizations of the 

 Inca, Aztec, and Maya. Thirty exhibit cases are arranged in alcoves 

 corresponding to marginal, tropical forest, circum-Caribbean, Meso- 

 American, and Andean culture areas. These exhibits are designed to 

 illustrate the advance of various cultures from the primitive hunting, 

 lishing, and gathering level of existence to the highly advanced soci- 

 eties practicing well-developed agriculture with complex social and 

 political organizations and skilled technologies. 



VISITORS 



During the fiscal year 1954 there were 3,262,150 visitors to the Mu- 

 seum buildings, an average daily attendance of 8,937. This is an in- 

 crease of 141,493 over the total in the previous fiscal year. Included 

 in this total are 240,629 school children, who arrived in 6,616 sepa- 

 i-ate groups. This year among the visitors were special groups such 

 as the 4-H Club, Sea Scouts, Safety Patrol, Stockmen and Cattlemen, 

 who came from Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, Missouri, and Texas. 

 The month of April 1954 drew the largest crowd with 514,214 visitors. 

 May 1954 was the second largest with 458,477 and August 1952 was 

 third with 405,894. Attendance records for the buildings show the 

 following numbers of visitors: Smithsonian Building, 652,078; Arts 

 and Industries Building, 1,748,117; and Natural History Building, 

 861,955. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 



Three major projects were undertaken during the year which pro- 

 vided additional storage space for the collections. In the Smithsonian 

 Building 3,250 square feet were made available for storing botanical 

 specimens by the construction of a steel balcony in the east end of 

 the herbarium. An additional 895 square feet of storage space for the 

 fish collections was provided in the Natural History Building when a 

 steel gallery was built in one of the storage rooms. Refrigeration 

 equipment and 665 square feet of additional space were procured for 

 the storage of valuable pelts of fur-bearing mammals. These furs now 

 can be stored properly by regulating the temperature and hmnidity 

 variation. 



