REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5 



previous reports. This condition, which seems to have almost reached 

 a limit of evil from the impossibility of further storage of such objects, 

 was brought to the esi^ecial attention of the last Congress, when it 

 became necessary to vacate the storage rooms occupied by the National 

 Museum in the old Armory building on account of intended changes 

 authorized by Congress for the benefit of the Fish Commission. 



At this time a small building in the city several squares distant was 

 rented, under authority from Congress, for the storage of the materials, 

 and for the workshops removed from the Armory building, but this made 

 no provision for the articles returned from the Chicago Exposition. 



At the request of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Institution, 

 which has been made by Congress the depository of all such objects, 

 felt obliged to resume the care of an immense collection of plants, con- 

 stituting the National Herbarium, which had previously been placed by 

 the Institution in the charge of that Department, and which it had now, 

 in fact, no room for. The collection was stored, under the charge of 

 the Dei)artment of Agriculture, in a building which was not fireproof, 

 and this fact was stated by the Department as influencing it in its 

 request that the Institution should resume charge of them, but the Insti- 

 tution itself has no place to put them, except in sheds more insecure than 

 those from which they came. It is true that room has been made for 

 them witliin the fireproof portion of the building, but only by the 

 transfer of a large mass of other objects to the wooden sheds, which 

 are in a condition of extreme danger. I can give a no more definite 

 idea of the alarming condition here than by saying that it is such that 

 no insurance company would place risks on the sheds except at very 

 high rates. 



The congestion in question has compelled the use not only of rooms 

 belonging to the Museum building proper, for the accommodation of 

 objects like those which came from the Chicago Exposition, but of 

 those of the Institution intended for other purposes, such as the 

 "Chapel," whose lofty vaulted roof was made flrepoof by Congress 

 three years ago with quite another destination than the actual use 

 which necessity has imposed for the time. 



It seems almost superfluous, after Avhat has just been said, for me to 

 recalkin other terms the need of more adequate accommodations for the 

 national collections, but I may again refer to what has been set forth 

 at length on this subject in my previous reports, more especially in 

 that for 1892. 



REPAIRS TO THE SMITHSONIAN BUILDING. 



In the contemplation of the first architect, the Smithsonian building 

 was intended to produce the effect of a Norman castle, and its tall 

 towers, narrow embrasures, and like features do attain, if not archaj- 

 ological correctness, at any rate a certain admitted attractiveness of 

 exterior. This has been reached, however, as is well known, not only 



