REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 5 



carrying- on the work of the Museum, for whose action he is responsible 

 to the Regents of the Institution. For many years the work was car- 

 ried on by Prof. Baird with no more than two or three assistants. The 

 Museum was not formally divided into departments. When the reor- 

 ganization was made, the diversity of the collections made it necessary 

 to institute numerous departments, each of which was placed in charge 

 of a curator. The number of curators changes with the changing ne 

 cessities <»f the Museum. At present tiie scientitic staff is composed of 

 the assistant secietary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge of the 

 National Museum, and thirty -two curators and acting curators, twenty- 

 two of whom receive no salary from the Museum, There are also eleven 

 administrative departments, (A list ot the scientiiic departments and 

 of the officers in charge of them is given on page Ul.) 



Three factors at least are necessary for tiie proper administrati<ni of 

 a large nuiseum. A i>hilosoi)hical classification must be adopted, sufli 

 ciently comprehensive and elastic to facilitate tlie distribution of the 

 objects in the collections, A staff of assistants must be employed, com 

 l)etent to make the proper classification of the objects ])laced in their 

 care, and to prevent their deterioration. A system of installati<ni and 

 arrangement must be devised, which will permit a satisfactory examina- 

 tion of the collections by students and others. 



The matter of classification has engaged the thought of the officers 

 of the Museum for many years. The chief difficidties are encountered 

 in th(^ classification of those collections which illustrate the history of 

 human culture, on account of the intricacy of the subject and its 

 manifold aspects and relationships. Some remarks on this branch of 

 classification, which can not be repeated in this outline, will be found 

 in the report for the year 1884, In the zoological, botanical, and geo- 

 logical departments, which form a considerable portion of the Museum, 

 a satisfactory classification is more easily determined upon on account of 

 the labors of systematic naturalists, running back for two centuries. 



In the arrangement and installation of the collections the interests of 

 three classes of persons have to be kept in view — those engaged in 

 independent researches, students in colleges and schools, and casual 

 visitors. So far as the investigator is concerned, it is only necessary 

 that the objects in a Museum should be preserved in good condition 

 and so arranged as to be available for study. The college student 

 demands something more. To be of the highest service to him, objects 

 must be arranged in series, without duplication, each showing the va- 

 rious phases of some one subject or the development of an idea or the 

 modifications of a tyi)e of structure; and nuist, furthermore, be labeled 

 in such a manner that the reason for their exhibition is unmistakaljle. 

 He must, in other words, have presented to him a variety of objett- 

 lessons. The casual visitors, who in point of numbers exceed the 

 other classes, make quite different demands. They do not come to a 

 Museum to study in detail any single group of objects, but from intelli- 



