10 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



museums or laboratories liaving the means of providing for its safe- 

 keeping, this being done more particularly when they are engaged to 

 ■work up special subjects or when they desire to use the material for 

 comparison in connection with their own collections. 



Being charged primarily with the custodianship of its collections, 

 the members of the scientific staff of the National Museum have com- 

 paratively little time during office hours for advancing knowledge, 

 though they are mostly well qualified for such work, being selected 

 with special reference to their ability to identif}' and classify the speci- 

 mens under their care in accordance with the most advanced researches. 

 The fact, however, that many papers descriptive of the collections are 

 produced each year is indicative of the industry which prevails among 

 the staff and of the extent to which the hours of work are prolonged. 



Among the honorar}^ oflicers having their laboratories at the Museum 

 are a number of assistants employed by other scientific bureaus to con- 

 duct investigations on material kept here in their charge, and in 

 whose results the Museum shares. 



Many collections have, from time to time, been transferred by the 

 Geological Survey, the Fish Commission, the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and other branches of the Government to the custody of the 

 Museum in advance of their final working up, in order to provide for 

 their safe storage and to secure the better facilities for study here 

 afforded. Under this arrangement the amount of research work 

 carried on in the Museum building has been greatly increased. 



Though having little means to expend for field work, members of 

 the Museum staff' are occasionally given opportunities to participate in 

 the explorations of other Government bureaus or of private expedi- 

 tions, in connection with which special researches may be carried on, 

 though the chief advantage results from the acquisition of new and 

 valuable material and a knowledge of the conditions under which it 

 occurred. 



AS AN EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The educational side of the Museum consists in the main of an exhi- 

 bition of all the classes of objects which it represents, so labeled that 

 the public may be instructed as bj^ an encyclopedia cut apart and 

 spread out*, except that its illustrations are real and material things. 

 Conceding all the space required, the principal difficulty incident to 

 the proper installation of such a collection is in the selection of its 

 parts so that wdiile visitors may have placed before them all that is 

 genuinely essential, thej'' shall not be overburdened or confused with 

 details. With the advance in museum methods, moreover, the objects 

 on displa}' are being grouped to a greater and greater extent, to 

 show relationships, with, whenever possible, some added notion of 

 their natural environment, so that at a glance the visitor ma}^ better 



