REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 41 



and dealers. But, most important, the array of material thus assem- 

 bled, equal in quantity to the entire contents of a museum of no mean 

 proportions, must be suitably prepared, mounted, labeled, and adjusted 

 to the cases they will occupy before shipment to the objective point. 

 Most of the cases require to be specially constructed, and the boxing 

 and final installation take much time. All the classes of labor thus 

 involved demand experience and training- as much for their perform- 

 ance as for their direction, qualifications seldom obtainable in the open 

 market. It therefore follows that nearly all of the technical work of 

 preparing for an exposition falls upon the employees of the Museum, 

 and consumes, while such work is in progress, a very large proportion 

 of their time. It is perhaps needless to say that each member of the 

 staff called into this service has performed his share with zeal and 

 enthusiasm, a sufficient explanation of the uniformly successful results 

 attained by the Museum at all of the expositions in which it has 

 participated. 



The exhibit for the Pan-American Exposition is especially charac- 

 terized by an. exceptionally high grade of preparators' work. In 

 anthropology it consists mainly of 12 life-sized lay-figure groups of 

 the type tribes of American aborigines and of 16 dwelling group 

 models; and in biology of mounted specimens of the larger American 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, and tishes. well illustrating the latest 

 advances in taxidermy. Conspicuous features in geology are skeletons 

 and restorations of several of the large fossil vertebrates from the 

 West, besides which are collections of minerals, native elements, inver- 

 tebrate fossils, etc. Nearly all of this material will be utilized in the 

 exhibition halls of the Museum on its return. 



Louisiana Purchase Exposition^ St. Louis. — An appropriation of 

 $250,000 was made at the last session of Congress for the erection of 

 a Government building at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition intended 

 to be held in St. Louis in 1904, but no money was then voted for the 

 preparation of an exhibit by the Government. 



THE MUSEUM STAFF. 



At the beginning of the year tin' Assistant Secretary was placed in 

 immediate charge of the Museum, the direction of which rests with 

 the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, its keeper ex officio. 



The scientific staff has consisted, besides the three head curators, of 

 18 curators. L2 assistant curators, 14 custodians, L0 aids, 4 associates, 

 and iJ collaborators, making a total of 63 persons, of whom, however, 

 only about one-half were under salary from the Museum, the remainder 

 serving in a volunteer or honorary capacity, though nearly all of the 

 latter were in the employ of other bureaus of the Government. The 

 principal changes in the staff during the year were as follows: 



On September L5, L900, tin 1 Museum lost by death its Honorary 



