THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 99 



One of the important features of the Institution is the library, 

 numbering- over 1^50,000 A-ohunes, consisting mainly of transactions of 

 learned societies and scientific periodicals, secured initially by pur- 

 chase, but noAY regularly added to by way of exchanges with numer- 

 ous universities and other institutions at home and abroad. Since 

 1800 the main portion of this library has been deposited in the 

 Library of Congress, thus enriching the national collections. A small 

 working library has been brought together in the Institution. Li- 

 brary methods and scientific bibliography have been greatly furthered 

 by the Institution, and many valuable lists and bibliographies and 

 rules for cataloguing have been published. Since 1901 the Institu- 

 tion has acted on the part of the United States as one of the com- 

 ponent bureaus of an International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 

 with headquarters at London, which prepares and issues annual 

 volumes of indexes to the literature of natural and physical sciences. 



The Institution has for a number of years supported a table in the 

 biological station at Naples, to which (jualified investigators are 

 admitted free of cost to them. 



THE NATIONAL >irSEU:\r. 



The Smithsonian Institution is the custodian, and the onh^ lawful 

 place of deposit, of all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, 

 and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and min- 

 eralogical specimens belonging to the United States. These collec- 

 tions are popularly known as the Xational Museum. The history of 

 the Museum is divided into three periods, first, from the foundation 

 of the Smithsonian Institution to 1857, during which time specimens 

 were collected solety to serve as materials for research; second, from 

 1S5T (when the Institution assumed the custody of the "National 

 Cabinet of Curiosities ") to 1870, during which period the Museum 

 became the place of deposit for scientific material which had already 

 been studied by investigators and had become available for public 

 exhibition and educational purposes. In 1870 the Museum entered 

 upon a new career of activity as a result of the large collections 

 secured by the Government and the Institution after the close of 

 the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and Congress provided 

 a new building, which was erected upon the Smithsonian grounds 

 and opened to the public in 1881. In 1903 an additional building, 

 at a cost of $3,500,000, was provided for and is now in course of 

 erection. 



The collections of the Museum are especially rich in the natural 

 history, geology, paleontology, archeology, and ethnology of America, 

 and also include many other subjects, such as American history, 

 ethnography, and collections relating to fine art and the industrial 



