REPORT <»F ASSISTANT SECRP:TARY. 25 



storage. Tl'e effort has been to constantlj'^ improve the condition and 

 enhance the usefuhies.s of the collections. The ta.sk of destroying- 

 moths and other injurious insects has been faithfulh' performed by 

 jSIr. Joseph Palmer, preparator, who is able to report the rare occur- 

 rence of these pests among the collections of the department. The 

 work of poisoning is begun at once upon the arrival of specimens and 

 is generally completed before assignment is made to the divisions and 

 sections. The extensive basketry collection has been thoroughly 

 cleaned and treated with preservatives, and other articles requiring it 

 have been treated in like manner. Poisoned specimens are specially 

 tagged or marked, and a card catalogue recording dates and kind of 

 treatment is kept. 



STORAGE. 



A great body of material belonging to the collection is in storage 

 in the Smithsonian Institution, in the Museum, and in three outbuild- 

 ings. During the year the head curator undertook the task of exam- 

 ining all of this storage material, the object being to determine its 

 nature and availability for exhibition. He was made chairman of a com- 

 mittee by the executive curator and was instructed to investigate the 

 entire storage material of the Museum. A force of from six to ten 

 men was employed for six weeks in this work. The storage material 

 has been accumulating for twenty -live years without full separation of 

 the various classes of collections and with but meager records. The 

 multitude of crates, boxes, and uncased objects was gotten out and 

 classified. The anthropological property was segregated by divisions 

 and sections, and a card catalogue was made enumerating briefly the 

 contents of each package. The same information was placed upon the 

 packages which are so arranged that the labels are visible and so they 

 can be removed with a minimum of labor. Up to date the catalogue 

 contains 711 cards. In addition, there is a large body of collections 

 mounted in glass covered unit boxes for exposition use. This mate^'ial 

 is now stacked in the storage buildings. 



(CATALOGUING. 



The routine for the reception, distribution, and cataloguing of col- 

 lections is given in last year's report. The work of the head curator's 

 office and of each division and section has been conducted accoi'ding to 

 the plan laid down in that report, and the results seem to be entirely 

 satisfactory. In writing the present report the head curator has 

 assembled on his desk the following data: The department's books 

 recording accessions, permanent and temporary, for the year; the card 

 catalogue of accessions; the card catalogue of collections for the year 

 from all the divisions and sections; the card catalogue of storage; the 

 card catalogue of exchanges; the card catalogue of articles poisoned 



