REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 113 



neons display of ethuological objects wliicli were gathered there, but 

 settin<i- aside tlie question of lack of legal authority, this building was 

 especially open to the objection of not being fireproof. Everything 

 l)ossible was done, however, to avoid interference with this department, 

 by refraining from exhibiting in the (rovernment building objects of a 

 kind similar to those which we were informed would be shown by the 

 Exposition authorities. 



The ethnological and arclia'ological collecticnis in the iSmithsonian 

 space were the joint exhibit of the Museum and the Bureau of Ethnol- 

 ogy, and too jnnch can not be said of the enthusiastic work of Maj. 

 Powell and the otlicers of the bureau in the development of this por- 

 tion of the display, and especially in the preparation of the group of 

 costumed figures of the aborigines of Xorth America. 



In addition to the exhibits sent from the Museum and the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, a special alcove was devoted to the exhibit of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and its methods of work. Here were shown photo- 

 graphs of the Smithsonian and Museum buildings; portraits of the 

 three secretaries — Joseph Henry (1840-1878), Spencer Fullerton Baird 

 (1878-1887), and Sanmel Pierpont Langley; the publications of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, including the Annual Reports, the Smithsonian 

 Contributions to Knowledge, the Miscellaneous Collections, the Eeports 

 of the National Museum, together with the Proceedings and Bulletins; 

 publications of the Bureau of Ethnology; the publications of the 

 National Academy of Sciences; the Reports of the American Historical 

 Association (affiliated with the Institution), and the reports of the 

 various scientific expeditions which have been conducted under the 

 direction of the Institution. There was also a screen of photographs 

 illustrating the discoveries of Prof. Henry, including those which led 

 to the invention of the electric telegraph. 



It had been intended to publish a series of popular handbooks 

 explaining the various collections exhibited, and also illustrated pam- 

 phlets in regard to the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum, but 

 the regulations issued by the local directory governing the distribution 

 of books and catalogues were found to be so oi)pressive that this was 

 abandoned, although nutch work had been done in the preparation of 

 this feature of the exhibition. 



By the action of the Local Directory of the Exposition the whole 

 matter of catalogues and illustrative literature was placed in the hands 

 of a single firm of printers, Avho were unwilling to print anything with- 

 out a guaranty that their sales should considerably exceed the cost of 

 printing, and who refused to allow other publishers to enter the field. 

 This illiberal i)olicy undoubtedly reduced very largelj^ the extent of 

 the literature which usually grows out of such expositions, and is not 

 only its chief educational agency, but one of its most important ])er- 

 manent results, and it is to l)e hoi)ed that no future exhibition will be 

 led into a similar error. 



H. Mis. 184. i)t. 1' 8 



