750 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



fessor Archer, one of the chief commissioners from Great Britain, in 

 a lecture recently delivered before the Society of Arts in London, uses 

 the following language in speaking of the United States Government 

 building and its annexes: 



This group consisted of a very laj'ge edifice, in tlie form of a cross, erected by the 

 United States Government at a cost of |60,000, and, in addition, a laboratory for illus- 

 trations of arsenal work and a model military hospital, which was of great practical 

 utility during the exhibition. Within the chief building was displayed most inter- 

 esting and instructive collections, illustrative of the work of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, and the general and geological surveys of the States, the mineral, zoological, 

 and botanical collections connected with those surveys, and also most important 

 ethnological and prehistoric collections. The great collection of food-fishes of 

 America, made for the Fishery Commission by Professor Baird, with the appliances 

 for catching and preserving fish; also series illustrating the various naval and mili- 

 tary weapons and engines, and machinery for arsenal work; and, lastly, a complete 

 display of all the applications in the postal department of the States. The general 

 arrangement of the contents of this large building, covering about 2 acres, was most 

 satisfactory and had been carried out under the most competent scientific super- 

 vision; hence it was felt to be the most instructive portion of the Centennial Exhibi- 

 tion. It brought into full view a great mass of the intellectual work of some of the 

 greatest of American workers in the fields of science. (Journal of the Society of 

 Arts, December 22, 1876. ) 



These suggestions were based upon the exhibit as actually made, and 

 which closed with the expiration of the Centennial Exhibition on the 

 10th of November. 



DONATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 



After the close of the exhibition a new element was introduced into 

 the question of the transfer of the Government collections to Wash- 

 ington and their arrangement for inspection and study, namely, the 

 donation to the United States of many objects or entire collections 

 that had Vjeen displayed elsewhere in the exhibition than in the Gov- 

 ernment building. These were derived from two sources: 



First. From American State commissions and priv^ate exhibitors, 

 by whom much material of great value was presented and tending to 

 fill up important blanks. 



Second. From the commissions of the several foreign governments 

 participating in the International Exhibition of 1876. 



The experience of previous expositions had indicated the proba- 

 bility of contributions from the latter source, and to meet the expected 

 emergency Congress at its last session granted the Armory building 

 to the National Museum, and made an appropriation for the purpose 

 in the following words: 



For repairing and- fitting up the so-called Armory building, on the Mall, between 

 Sixth and Seventh streets, and to enable the Smithsonian Institution to store therein 

 and to take care of specimens of the extensive series of the ores of the precious 

 metals, marbles, coals, and numerous objects of natural history now on exhibition in 



