162 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



care by various classes, notably by students from the institutions of 

 learning in Ohio and adjoining States, and the educational influence 

 upon these can not be overestimated. 



Governmental participation in the expositions of the past has usually 

 been urged on the ground of the great educational value of such under- 

 takings to the intelligent visitors. No one who has given the slightest 

 thought to this subject or who has observed the crowds in their examina- 

 tion of the collections, will for a moment deny this,nor will they fail to dis- 

 cover that the exhibits of the General Government attract by far the most 

 attention. If these departmental exhibits, when properly installed in 

 Washington, were accessible to all, there would certainly be no excuse 

 for ever sending them to other localities ; but as such a vast majority 

 of the people of the country never visit the National Capital, the prac- 

 tice of sending educational collections to the larger centers of population 

 is perhaps justifiable. 



On November 8, the day set for closing, a party of eight arrived from 

 Washington to assist in the work of packing the exhibits. It consisted 

 of Mr. F. A. Lucas, who was to superintend the packing of the natural 

 history collections, and Mr. Horan, who, with six skilled workmen, was 

 to assist in the general work. A number of local mechanics and laborers 

 were also employed and the work of packing was vigorously pushed. 

 Five car-loads of exhibits were ready for shipment on the 20th of the 

 month, and others were forwarded at intervals during the next two 

 weeks, the last starting on December 4. They arrived with less than 

 the usual amount of breakage, and by the middle of the following Feb- 

 ruary, a very large percentage of them had been unpacked, repaired, and 

 returned to their places in the Museum collections. 



In accordance with the provision of the law, the President on July 11, 

 authorized the sending of an exhibit to Marietta, Ohio. Most of the 

 material for this exhibit was sent direct from Washington, though a few 

 articles were forwarded from the collections at Cincinnati. This collec- 

 tion was under the direction of Mr. W. V. Cox, chief clerk of the Mu- 

 seum, who has prepared a detailed report on the subject. 



3. REVIEW OF THE SMITHSONIAN EXHIBIT. 



The collective exhibit of the Smithsonian was, as already intimated, 

 made up of separate collections prepared by the curators of several of the 

 departments of the Museum. The general display may be divided into 

 three groups, namely : Anthropological exhibits, natural history col- 

 lections, and series belonging to the department of arts and indus- 

 tries. A detailed description of the separate exhibits, or in fact, even 

 a list of the objects exhibited, would extend this paper far beyond the 

 proper limit. It, however, seems desirable to give a brief statement of 

 the general character of the exhibits of the various sections. Such a 

 .statement will be found in the following pages. When fuller infonna- 



