110 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



The exhibits of the Siuithsoiiiau Institution were designedly selected 

 so as to supplement and be supplemented by those displayed elsewhere 

 in Jackson Park. It was our purpose to avoid all riv^alry, and, so far 

 as could be done without disobeying the implied requirement of the law, 

 that the exhibits should illustrate all the functions of Government 

 institutions, to show nothing which would be shown well by others. 



In consequence, our exhibits can not well be considered except iu 

 connection with tlie others of a similar character. This has been well 

 done by Mr. William H. Dall, in a series of three letters on "Science 

 at the Fair," published by the IS'ew York Nation, as being the result 

 of a careful review by an unbiased observer and the only really careful 

 report of the kind which has been made.* 



The accompanying diagram of tlie floor space of the Government 

 building shows in a general way the assignment of our space and its 

 relation to that occupied by the other Departments of the Government. 

 (PI. 56). 



The exhibit of the Government was made under the direction of a 

 board of control and management, appointed by the President in 

 accordance with an "Act providing for the celebration of the four 

 hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher 

 Columbus," etc., approved April 25, 1890. t This board was composed 

 of one member representing each Department. At the beginning of 

 the Exposition the board was composed of the original appointees, as 

 follows: Sevellon A. Brown, whief clerk, Depai'tment of State; A. B. 

 Nettleton, Assistant Secretary, Treasury Department ; Maj. Clifton 

 Comly, U. S. A., War Department; Commodore K. W. Meade, U. S. 

 N., Navy Department; A. D. Hazen, Third Assistant Postmaster- 

 General, Post-Oftice Department; H.A.Taylor, Commissioner of Rail- 

 roads, Department of the Interior ; E. C. Foster, General Agent, 

 Department of Justice; Edwin Willits, Assistant Secretary, Depart- 

 ment o f Agriculture ; J. W. Collins, Assistant, U. S. Fish Commission, 

 and G. Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution; 

 but shortly after the opening of the Exposition Mr. W. E. Curtis 

 became the representative of the Department of State, Mr, F. A. 

 Stocks of the Treasury, Prof. F. W. Clarke of the Interior, and Dr. 

 Tarleton H. Bean of the Fish Commission. 



The functions and responsibilities of this board were very different 

 from those of the boards previously charged by Congress with the 

 preparation of Government exhibits, and it remains to be seen whether 

 the change is altogether advantageous, either iu the matter of efticiency 

 or economy. In previous exhibitions the representative of each 

 Department has been looked upon as the representative of its otticial 

 head, and the Government exhibit has been an assemblage of indi- 



"Dall, W. H. The Cohimbus Exposition! — Science. The Nation, Sept. 14, 21, 28, 

 1893. — (Nos. vii-rx of Thv Nation series of letters.) 

 t See Appendix ix. 



