REPOUT ON THE SECTION OF GRAPHIC ARTS 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



JlY f<. K. KoEHLKK, (aralor. 



The work done during this year does not show jjerceptibly in the ap- 

 pearance of the collections under my charge, so far as they have been 

 l)laced on exhibition. The aim has been to make the several divisions 

 more complete by tilling- gaps here and there, and these additions are, 

 as a matter of course, lost in the mass to the general observer, while 

 some of them have not yet been i)laced in position. This is more es- 

 l)ecially true of several series of specimens lately acquired, in illustra- 

 tion of a number of photo-mechanical processes. Special attention has 

 been given to the development of the division comprising these inter- 

 esting and most important jirocesses, and the additions recently made 

 Avill compel a rearrangement of the whole division. 



The accessions for the year, both by gift and by purchase, although 

 not as numerous as in previous years, have yet been by no means un- 

 important. The lists herewith submitted show that many of the friends 

 of the Museum especially interested in the Section of Graphic Arts 

 have again remembered it, and that the cooperation of others has been 

 enlisted in addition. Among the gifts specially to be mentionedis a series 

 of specimens fully illustrating the photo-lithographic process invented 

 by Mr, J, W. Osborne, prepared by Mr. Fernald, of New York, under the 

 supervision of tlie inventor himself, and given by him to the Museum; 

 a small collection of Japanese color-prints and illustrated books, received 

 from Mr. T. Tokuno, chief of Insetsu Kioku, Tokio, Japan, and an im- 

 j)ression from a heliogravure i^late made by Nicephore Jfiepce in 1824, 

 the gift of Mr. Ch. Gindriez, of Chalons-sur-Saone, France. The his- 

 torical interest attaching to this specimen will be manifest at once when 

 it is considered that it is printed from the first measurnbly successful 

 plate produced by Niepce, who was the pioneer in this department of 

 scientific research. The purchases include a silver-point drawing by 

 Prof. Legros, of London; an aquatint plate, with proofs from it, illus- 

 trating the wet ground process, and specially made for the Museum by 



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