88 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



tbe voyages of Columbus and liis companions, as well as jjievious efforts 

 for the discovery of a new contiueut. 



The exj»()sitious were held iu the new building' erected for the national 

 library and museums in the Paseo de liecoletos, and in the adjacent 

 grounds and buildings of the Paniue de Madrid. 



There were other celebrations in connection with the expositions, 

 beginning witTh a congress at Huelva, on the 2d of August, in com- 

 memoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the departure of the 

 vessels of Columbus from the port of Palos, followed by a session of 

 the Congress of Orientalists, which took jilace in the Alcazar in Seville, 

 continuing from the 1st to the 0th of October; and the Ninth Congress 

 of Americanists, in the Convent of La Rabida, at Huelva, from the 

 7th to the 11th of October. On the 11th of October was unveiled at 

 La Riibida a monument to commemorate the discovery of America. 

 There were other festivals and naval demonstrations at Huelva at 

 various times from the 3d of August to the 3d of November. 



The management of the commemoration was vested in a ro^al commis- 

 sion, the president of which is tlie prime minister of Spain, his excel- 

 lency Don Antonio Canovas del Castillo. Commissions were organ- 

 ized in all of the Spanish-American republics, by which very extensive 

 exhibits were secured, and special commissions were also appointed by 

 the governors of the Spanish provinces and the governors-general of 

 the Antilles and the Phillippine Islands. 



Our commissioners, by a circular issued June 1, 1802, invited the coop- 

 eration of persons having objects of any kiiul suitable for exhibition on 

 this occasion, requesting them to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution 

 for transmission to Madrid. Objects intended for the World's Colum- 

 bian Exposition in Chicago were, by a special arrangement, to be for- 

 warded direct from Madrid to Chicago in ample time for installation. 



It was especially urged that authors and publishers of books relating 

 to the periods of discovery and conquest, and the colonial history of the 

 sev^eral European settlements in America, should exhibit them. 



The executive work was, by agreement between the three commis- 

 sioners, divided as folk)Ws: The commissioner-general to reside in 

 Madrid through the exhibition, and in addition to his ceremonial func- 

 tions to direct the return of the exhibits; Dr. Welling was to prepare 

 a general report uixni the exliibition, and the writer to have charge of 

 the preparation of the exhibits, their transportation to Madrid, and 

 their installation in the exposition building. 



In connection with this work, representatives of the two anthr(»|>o- 

 logical departments of the ^Museum were detailed to acconq»any the 

 exhibits of the Museum to Madrid, and to assist in the installation and 

 maintenance of the display. These were Dr. Thomas Wilson, curator 

 of prehistoric anthropology, and Dr. Walter Hough, assistant curator 

 of ethnology, who was seut to represent Prof Mason, the curator, the 

 latter, on account of the preparations in progress for the Chicago Expo- 



