6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



the Goveniiiieiit, jiiul during their progress large collections of ethno- 

 logical and natural history objects Avere made. Important foreign 

 material was obtained by the Pa(!ific Exploring Expedition, Perry's 

 Expedition to Japan, and other naval expeditions, while the naturalists 

 attached to the Pacific Eailroad Survey, the Mexican Boundary Sur- 

 vey, and the surveys under the Army Engineer Corps, brought together 

 great collections illustrating the natural resources and ethnology of 

 North America. 



A new source of growth, subsequent to 1871, was the exploration of 

 the waters of North America by the United States Fish Commission. 

 The great collections of all forms of aquatic life made by the Commission 

 found their way gradually into the National Museum, to be placed beside 

 the collections of other bureaus of the Government engaged in scientific 

 work. 



At the close of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 the exhibits of the 

 United States Government and those of numerous foreign governments 

 and of private exhibitors came to the National Museum. 



A new period now began. The storage rooms and exhibition halls of 

 the Smithsonian building were already overflowing with the accumula- 

 tions of thirty years, and the small number of persons employed in caring 

 for them were overburdened and unable properly to perform the requisite 

 work. The limits of the collections had become wider, and a new and 

 broader classification was found to be necessary. The growth of the 

 country in wealth and culture had led to the establishment of many 

 local museums, and the educational influences flowing from these and 

 from the Centennial Exhibition caused a demand for more efficient 

 methods of museum administration. The exhibition of 1870 had been 

 indeed an event of great educational importance to the people of- the 

 United States; and not the least of its good works was the lesson it 

 taught as to the possibilities for good in j)ublic museums. 



The objects which at the close of the Centennial Exhibition were 

 given to the United States for its National Museum were of large intrin- 

 sic value, and were also very important from the fact that the necessity 

 of caring for them led to the erection of a large building for the expansion 

 of the Museum itself. 



In the early years Professor Baird, then assistant secretary of the 

 Institution, with two or three assistants, had been able to give all nec- 

 essary attention to the care of the collections, and the Museum had 

 never been formally divided into departments. When the reorganiza- 

 tion was made in 1881, under the immediate care of the present Assist- 

 ant Secretary, the diversity of the collections made it necessary to 

 establish a number of departments, each of which was placed in charge 

 of a curator. 



There are now 28 organized departments and sections in the Museum, 

 the larger number of which are in charge of specialists who receive no 

 salary from the Museum. There are also 7 administrative offices. 



