6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



the first exposition in this country in which the Government partici- 

 pated, and the first to make known to vast numbers of the people of 

 the United States the existence of national collections at Washing-ton, 

 as well as new methods of installing and exhibiting museum materials, 

 differing radically from the older cabinets of college or local museums 

 which prevailed up to that time. After its close the material brought 

 hack belonging to the Government, together with the extensive gifts 

 made to the United States by private persons and foreign govern- 

 ments, forced the erection of a separate building, which brought the 

 name " National Museum " into greater prominence. Since that time 

 ( Jongress has in the main provided for the maintenance of the Museum, 

 hut its management remains, by the fundamental act, under the 

 authority of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, administered 

 through their Secretary, who is ex officio the keeper — a form of gov- 

 ernment insuring a consistent and uniform policy and a nonpartisan 

 administration of its affairs. The greater part of the Smithsonian 

 building is still u^'d for museum purposes, and the Institution, as 

 well as all the scientific bureaus at Washington, cooperate, both 

 through men and material, in enlarging and caring for the national 

 collections. 



With the primary object of preserving the collections in anthro- 

 pology, biology, and geology obtained by the national surveys, every 

 effort is being made, through exchange, donation, purchase, and the 

 encouragement of exploration, to so increase its possessions that the 

 Museum of the Government may in time contain the fullest possible 

 representation of all branches of science and the arts capable of being 

 illustrated in a material way. The specimens are classified in two 

 series, one comprising the bulk of the material, being arranged for 

 the purposes of scientific research and reference in laboratories and 

 storerooms, to which students are freely admitted; the other, selected 

 with regard to their general educational value and popular interest, 

 and accompanied hv descriptive labels, being displayed in glass-cov- 

 ered eases in the public halls. The duplicate specimens not required 

 for exchanges are made up into sets for distribution to schools and 

 colleges throughout the country. Papers descriptive of the collec- 

 tions, both technical ami popular, are published for gratuitous circu- 

 lation to the extent of three or more volumes yearly; and, finally, the 

 Museum has come to be regarded as a sort of bureau of information 

 in respect to all subjects with which it is concerned even in the 

 remotest degree, the correspondence which this involves now consti- 

 tuting one of its heaviest tasks. 



The history of the Museum, as pointed out by the late Dr. Goode, 



max be divided into thre< epochs, which he characterized as follows:' 



■ the period from the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution to 1857 dur- 



mg which time ape. imens were collected solely to serve us materials for research. 



