14 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



has reached a stage where the helplessness of the authorities to meet 

 it is pathetic. Galleries have been built in some of the Museum halls. 

 Their capacit}' has not sufficed to keep pace with the current demands 

 of the 3'ears in which the}^ were constructed, and collection after col- 

 lection has been carted away to one of the outside buildings. These 

 now are all practically filled, and next year a new one must be leased, 

 or accessions turned away, or the exhibition halls transformed into 

 storehouses. 



On its educational side there is equal cause for complaint. The 

 public demands to see more than is now placed before it, and what is 

 already on display is so closely crowded as to be difficult of inspection. 

 As previousl}^ explained, there is much material in storage which 

 should be put on exhibition. In fact, a very large share of the collec- 

 tions can be best looked after and protected in the exposed cases of 

 the open halls. With its great resources, exceeding those of any 

 State, municipal, or private establishment, the Government is under 

 a moral obligation to foster and promote the educational feature of 

 the Museum to the fullest extent possible. Congress has acknowl- 

 edged this obligation from the very start, and has, perhaps, done more 

 in support of this object than of any other. It is the one, moreover, 

 which requires the most space and most expensive furnishings — the 

 largest item in the construction of a new building. 



Laboratories of much larger size than the existing ones are required 

 in all the departments. This is not alone in the interest of the work 

 carried on by employees of the Museum. Better accommodations are 

 needed for the assistants from other scientific bureaus who are called 

 here to consult the collections, and who could to some extent carry on 

 their investigations much more advantageousl}^ at the Museum than 

 in their own buildings were proper facilities afl'orded them. The 

 wants of scientific men from other parts of the country and from 

 abroad, who turn to the national collections for materials for their 

 study, and many of whom visit Washington every year, have also to 

 be considered and provided for. 



And finally, the shops where cases are made, where paint is stored 

 and mixed, where the taxidermy, modeling, and coarser preparatory 

 work is done, now distributed among as many outside buildings, 

 require to be brought together in the interest of economy and of 

 better administration. 



As a result of its extraordinary growth under the ver}^ inadequate 

 provisions made for its maintenance, the National Museum has been 

 obliged to adapt itself to circumstances, to scatter its belongings and 

 its work, so that to-da}'^ its form and its administration are conditioned 

 by the restrictions under which it labors and not in accordance with 

 the best ideals, in the realization of many of which it was originally 

 a pioneer. The first and most urgent need is a new building, large. 



