32 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



group, the character of the construction work so far as it has been 

 carried leaves nothing to be desired in respect either to enduring 

 quality, or to interpretation of the architect's conception. 



The subbasement will contain the appliances connected with the 

 heating, lighting, and ventilation of the building, but steam and 

 electric current will be supplied from the central plant of the Mu- 

 seum. In the basement, which will be a well-lighted story, will be 

 located large studios and rooms for the storage of such parts of the 

 collections as are not on exhibition, a capacious lecture hall, an office 

 for the curator, and work and comfort rooms, furnishing, in fact, 

 all necessary conveniences for administration, for serious study, and 

 for popular instruction. 



The main story will be entirely devoted to exhibition purposes and 

 be divided into 19 rooms, each designed for a particular subject or 

 class of objects, reached by wide corridors. The Whistler collection 

 will occupy 5 of these rooms, in one of which the decorations of the 

 famous peacock room will be installed. The central court, to con- 

 tain a fountain, will be a special feature of this story, large, arched 

 openings lighting the adjoining corridors and loggias. The entire 

 available floor space of the main and basement stories will aggre- 

 gate some 55,000 square feet, about equally divided between the two 

 floors. 



It will be recalled that this building is designed to accommodate 

 only the Freer collections and to provide for the study and appre- 

 ciation of their varied contents which supply a vast amount of ma- 

 terial for research work by specialists. As an integral part of this 

 specific gift of art, the most important and valued donation which 

 any individual has ever made, freely and unconditionally, to the 

 Nation, it can not be otherwise employed. Its completion, an event 

 anticipated for the fiscal year 1918-19, while insuring an incalculable 

 gain for the Museum and the public, will not, therefore, satisfy any 

 of the needs, set forth in the last report, in respect to additional space 

 for the national collections of both the applied and the fine arts, as 

 also of American history. The valuable materials in these depart- 

 ments, which have long since been seriously overcrowded, can at 

 present be neither properly utilized nor appropriately brought to the 

 attention of the public. In one branch especially, that of the in- 

 dustrial arts, it is unfortunate that such a condition should now 

 exist, particularly as it is coupled with lack of means for securing an 

 adequate staff of practical experts, as the collections are clasely as- 

 sociated with many of the vital problems now confronting the coun- 

 try. With its limited facilities, however, an effort is being made to 

 demonstrate the value of Museum work in time of crisis, and con- 

 tributions made since the close of the year but in time to mention 



