REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 33 



of laboratory space, it has, moreover, been necessary to close the gal- 

 leries in one court and from time to time to shut off temporarily from 

 public use other parts of the exhibition halls. 



The crowding- which probably strikes the visitor as most objection- 

 able occurs in the Section of American History, which occupies the 

 hall first entered from the main doorway. While the collections here 

 installed were entirely rearranged during the year and only await the 

 addition of printed labels to put the section in as satisfactory a condi- 

 tion as the circumstances permit, it has been necessary to place the 

 eases so close together as to leave exceedingly narrow passageways 

 between them. A large number of very important historical objects 

 are unfortunately still in storage, and the further development of the 

 collection is hindered by the fact that persons having desirable material 

 which they would gladly donate or loan, will only do so on the assur- 

 ance that their contributions will be immediately displayed. The use 

 of the wall cases along the sides of this hall would afford some relief, 

 but these are now tilled with tin? very valuable collection of musical 

 instruments, for which no other place is available. The Museum has 

 also a large and noteworthy collection of coins and medals, of which 

 only a small fraction is now on exhibition, and which should soon be 

 made accessible to the public. 



The exhibits prepared by the department for the Pan-American 

 Exposition, consisting chiefly of large ethnographical groups of lay 

 figures, will, upon their return to the Museum at the close of the 

 exposition, necessitate the clearing out of at least one of the halls for 

 their reception or the dismantling and storage of the groups, which 

 would be almost equivalent to their destruction. 



^Vhile the halls assigned to the Department of Biology are mainly 

 tilled, some to overflowing, in a few instances the completion of the 

 displays has been dela} T ed awaiting the results of further experiments. 



The south east range in the Museum building, allotted to the reptiles 

 and fishes, was repainted and furnished with a new floor of terrazzo 

 pavement. Upright cases have been arranged along the walls for the 

 fishes, and floor cases with sloping tops in the middle space for the 

 reptiles and batrachians. The exhibit consists at present of casts of 

 North American species, with a small alcoholic series of deep-sea 

 tishes, accompanied by colored figures, which it is intended to supple- 

 ment by collections of South American and Old World species in some 

 preservative fluid. No entirely satisfactory method of representing 

 these groups to the public has yet been found. Painted casts can 

 never be made to look like the animals as they appear in life, and no 

 method of retaining the life colors in specimens preserved in liquids 

 has been discovered. The painting of actual specimens has been tried 



NAT MUS 1901 3 



