REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 7 



SPECIAL EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



The history of the Natiomil Museum may be divided into three 

 periods : 



First, the period from tlie foundation of the Smithsonian Institution 

 to 1857, during- which time specimens were collected solely to serve as 

 materials for research. No special effort was made to exhibit them to 

 the public or to utilize them, except as a foundation for scientific 

 description and theory. 



Second, the period from 1857, when the institution assumed the cus- 

 tody of the "National Cabinet of Curiosities," to 187(3. During- this 

 period the Museum became a place of deposit for scientific collections 

 which had already been studied, these collections, so far as convenient, 

 being" exhibited to the public and, so far as practicable, made to serve 

 an educational purpose. 



Third, the in^esent period (beginning in the year 1876), in which the 

 Museum has undertaken more fully tlie additional task of gathering 

 collections and exhibiting- them on account of their value from an 

 educational standpoin t. 



During- the first period the main object of the Museum was scien- 

 tific research; in the second, the establishment became a museum of 

 record as well as of research; while in the third period has been added 

 the idea of public education. The three ideas — record, research, and 

 education — cooperative and mutually helpful as they are, are essential 

 to the development of every great museum. The National Museum 

 endeavors to promote them all. 



It is a museum of record^ in which are preserved the material founda- 

 tions of an enormous amount of scientific knowledge — the types of 

 numerous past investigations. This is especially the case with those 

 materials that have served as a foundation for the reports upon the 

 resources of the United States. 



It is a museum of research, which aims to make its contents serve in 

 the highest degree as a stimulus to inquiry and a foundation for scien- 

 tific investigation. Research is necessary in order to identify and group 

 the objects in the most philosophical and instructive relations, and its 

 oflficers are therefore selected for their ability as investigators, as well 

 as for their trustworthiness as custodians. 



It is an educational museum^ through its policy of illustrating by 

 specimens every kind of natural object and every manifestation of 

 human thought and activity, of displaying descriptive labels adapted 

 to the popular mind, and of distributing its publications and its named 

 series of duplicates. 



In conclusion let us review what seems to have been definitely accom- 

 plished since the time of reorganization in 1881. 



The definite steps of progress may be summarized as follows: 



(1) An organization of the Museum stall" has been effected, efticient 



