88 REPORT OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the direction of the Indian Bureau and the Smithsonian, for the illustra- 

 tion of the ethnology of the aborigines of North America. At this time a 

 great quantity of valuable material was obtained which, in connection with 

 material borrowed from the National Museum, served to carry out very 

 thoroughly the desire of Congress in making the appropriation. At the 

 same time the Museum became possessed of a large portion of the indus- 

 trial exhibits of some thirty foreign governments which participated in 

 the exhibition of 187G, and since that time very important additions and 

 contributions have been received from private exhibitors, American and 

 foreign, of materials shown by them in the same exhibition, and in the 

 so-called permanent exhibition, which was its temporary successor. 



The new building, which was put up expressly for the reception of 

 these collections, has proved to be so well adapted for the reception of 

 a great industrial Museum, that many manufacturers and commercial 

 houses have been induced to contribute materials for its expansion, and 

 there is every prospect that the Museum will develop into one of the 

 most perfect and comprehensive of its class. 



This Museum being by law the only legal depository for all objects 

 of art, and of all objects of natural history, and of all geological and 

 ethnological specimens belonging, or hereafter to belong, to the United 

 States, or gathered by any branch of the public service, and being by 

 law and by inheritance the successor of the National Cabinet of Curiosities 

 and of the National Institution, the only similar establishments which 

 have ever existed in the United States, and having, after a quarter of a 

 century, been sustained by annual appropriations from Congress, would 

 seem to be entitled to the hearty support of the government in its eflorts 

 to gain an honorable place among the National Museums of the world, 

 and, if possible, to surpass them in completeness and attractiveness. 



It is hoped that in the future the j)ublic spirit of many citizens of the 

 United States will lead to the deposit in the National Museum of many 

 of the extensive private collections now so rapidly increasing through- 

 out the country in number and extent. 



It should be the aim of the officers of the Museum to encourage such 

 deposits, by using the most thorough and painstaking methods in in- 

 stalling and caring for the specimens under their charge. 



Mr. Bamet PhiUips, discussing in the New York Times the future 

 prospects of the Museum, writes: 



'' It does not, of course, behoove a great national enterprise of the 

 character I have tried to tlescribe to play the part of a solicitor, nor can 

 it go from collector to collector and beg for contributious for its cases. 

 Still, without directly asking such an enlightened mass of people as our 

 own, it counts a great deal on i)rivate support. It believes that there 

 are many people in this country — men of means, of intelligence — who, 

 if they understood what is the aim of this Museum — that of national 

 education — would gladly send to it their collections; or, knowing what 

 particular class of objects the institution was desirous of securing, would 

 come forward spontaneously and give it their aid." 



