30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
United States, as well as collections of specimens. The academy has 
expressed its grateful appreciation of the generous attitude of foreign 
and American societies and of the aid offered by the International 
Exchange Service of the Smithsonian Institution in rehabilitating 
its library and collections. 
NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
The overcrowding of the present Museum building has necessarily 
continued, so that in many places it presents almost the aspect of a 
storehouse. Nevertheless, the collections can be viewed by visitors, 
although not to the advantage which a freer installation would render 
possible. Meanwhile the roof of the present building is being re- 
paired and various exhibition halls have been isolated with a view to 
obtaining greater fire protection. Exclusive of the subject of the fine 
arts, the additions to the Museum during the year consisted of about 
a quarter of a million specimens representing all the subjects em- 
braced in the Museum collections. Several expeditions for collecting 
and observation were made by members of the staff. Many of the 
collections were reclassified and numerous papers published. Of 
duplicate specimens separated from the collections about 16,000 were 
distributed in 208 sets to educational establishments in different parts 
of the United States. The principal labor of representing the Insti- 
tution and the Museum at the Jamestown Exposition, and the Gov- 
ernment, the Institution, and the Museum at the Bordeaux Exposition, 
fell upon the staff of the Museum. Mr. W. de C. Ravenel, the ad- 
ministrative assistant of the Museum, acted as representative of the 
Institution for both these expositions with great ability and success. 
NEW BUILDING FOR THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Although the new building for the National Museum has not pro- 
gressed so rapidly as had been expected, due almost exclusively to 
delays in the delivery of the granite, these conditions have now been 
overcome, and it is confidently expected that the building will be 
under roof by the spring of 1908 and be ready for occupancy by the 
beginning of 1909, consuming a period of time not excessive in view 
of the great size of the building and of the solid and monumental 
character of its construction. 
As the new building approaches completion certain questions con- 
nected with the future administration of the Museum necessarily 
press for consideration. It has been reasonably well determined that 
the new building will be devoted to the scientific and historical col- 
lections, and the present Museum building will be employed for the 
development of the department of arts and industries; that the upper 
exhibition hall of the Smithsonian building will be utilized to the 
