Report op the secretary. 21 



Under resolution of the Regents the bequest was deposited in the 

 Treasury on the same terms as the original Smithsonian bequest. In 

 administering the trust the income has thus far been only partially used, 

 but alh»wed to accumulate, the annual interest not being yet sufficient 

 to bear the expense attendant on the designing and striking of a proper 

 medal. 



Statue of Secretary Baird. — In my report for 1893 I called attention 

 to a bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Morrill to provide for the 

 erection of a bionze statue of Professor Baird in the grounds of the 

 Institution. The failure of the passage of this bill was a disappoint- 

 ment to the friends of the Institution, and I sincerely hope that Con- 

 gress may consent to make an appropriation suitable for such a 

 memorial. 



American Historical Association. — The manuscrii)t of the annual 

 report of the American Historical Association for the year 1893 was 

 transmitted to Congress on March 3, 1894. This is the fifth annual 

 report and consistschiefly of papers read at the Historical Congress at 

 Chicago in July, 1893. The association has no official relation to the 

 Institution further than that its annual reports are transmitted to Con- 

 gress through the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as required 

 by its incor])oration act. The reports are Congressional documents, and 

 the Institution has no control of their distribution. The association 

 prints a special edition of the reports at its own expense and distributes 

 them to the State historical societies and to a number of foreign insti- 

 tutions and libraries. Under authority granted by Congress in the act 

 approved January 4, 1889, a storage room has been assigned in the 

 National Museum for the publications of the association, and in the fire- 

 proof vaults of the Institution the association has temporarily deposited 

 a valuable collection of manuscript records pertaining to the early 

 history of the telegraph. 



THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



In previous reports I have felt called upon to insist upon three things 

 in regard to the Museum: First, that the collections are increasing so 

 rapidly that unless additional space is provided for their proper admin- 

 istration and exhibition its efficiency will be greatly impaired ; secondly, 

 that the collections, although growing rapidly in certain directions, 

 are not increasing as symmetrically and consistently as is manifestly 

 desirable. 



The third point which I desire to emphasize, and to introduce before 

 the others, has reference to the most undesirable and dangerous neces- 

 sity of storing collections, which can not, for lack of space, be placed 

 on exhibition, in the wooden sheds south of the Smithsonian building 

 and in the basement of the building itself. The storage sheds them- 



