61 



principal vegetables also having- been added ; while a regularly ap- 

 pointed taxidermist, Mrs. Teresa Drexler, made considerable additions 

 to the collections of birds and poultry. Miss Caroline C. Moultou was 

 museum attendant. 



Then the prep.irations for the CentL'unial Exhibition of 1876 were in- 

 augurated, the supervision of the work of getting up the museum ex- 

 hibit devolving upon the assistant entomologist,* who, co-operating af- 

 terwards with Professor Baird, was enabled to almost double the col- 

 lections of the department from foreign exhibits, necessitating the erec- 

 tion of a gallery on each side of the museum hall. 



Mr. Glover had by this time so far lost interest in the museum, being 

 now wholly absorbed in his entomological work and its publication^ 

 that when the acquisition of this great mass of material necessitated a 

 better classification and arrangement of the museum disi)lay the for- 

 mulation of a new plan of arrangement was left entirely to the writer. 

 The classification which was then devised is published at the end of 

 the entomologist's report in the annual volume for 1877, pages 118 to 

 148,t in a special report made to Mr. Glover. 



It may be stated that the scheme of arrangement set forth in this 

 published classification was closely followed in the reorganization which 

 shortly followed. 



The museum was now (1877) at the zenith of its importance and use- 

 fulness, and shortly after its decline began. The first calamity which 

 occurred to it was the loss of many of its large and valuable collections 

 gathered at the Centennial, which, for want of a few hundred dollars 

 worth of display bottles and other material suitable for their exhibition, 

 asked for and repeatedly refused, remained stored in the garret above 

 the museum hall. Through the ofificiousness of the property clerk of 

 the department, appointed by Commissioner Le Due, or by the Com- 

 missioner's order, this mass of material was either sold to a junk dealer 

 or thrown on a rubbish heap, according to its market value at "junk" 

 prices, and thousands of dollars' worth of valuable museum material 

 wasted and destroyed. Then followed Mr. Glover's retirement from 

 active duty, and as the assistant entomologist shortly after resigned, 

 and other changes had occurred in the museum corps, the museum was 

 practically left w ithout care, as no regular curator was appointed for 

 several years. Dr. Vasey was given nominal charge for a time, but his 

 own duties as botanist were sufficient to occupy his whole atteution. 



The remainder of the story is brietly told. A wooden exhibition build- 

 ing had been erected in one corner of the department grounds for the dis- 

 play of railroad exhibits and other similar exposition displays. More 



*See Agricultural Report for 1876, p. 17. 



tThe entomologii^t reluctantly incorporated this museum report and classilication 

 into his own report, signing his name to the two documents in one to avoid running 

 counter to the whims and absurd prejudices of the gentleman who was then Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture. This statement is made in simple justice to the author of 

 the report. 



