Report on the United States National 
Museum 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condi- 
tion and operations of the U.S. National Museum for the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1959: 
COLLECTIONS 
Specimens incorporated into the national collections totaled 
1,144,445, distributed among the eight departments as follows: An- 
thropology, 14,497 ; zoology, 452,163 ; botany, 50,641; geology, 189,070; 
Armed Forces history, 934; arts and manufactures, 12,699; civil 
history, 469,612; science and technology, 4,829. This increase is 
smaller than last year, when an unusual accretion resulted from the 
accession of a large number of stamps. This year’s total is a more 
normal figure. Most of the accessions were acquired as gifts from 
individuals or as transfers from Government departments and agen- 
cies. The Annual Report of the Museum, published as a separate 
document, contains a detailed list of the year’s acquisitions, of which 
the more important are summarized below. Catalog entries in all 
departments now total 52,022,520. 
Anthropology—Prince Norodom Sihanouk, formerly King of 
Cambodia and now Prime Minister of that country, presented to 
the people of the United States through President Dwight D. Hisen- 
hower a fine example of a stone Buddha, seated on a coiled serpent 
(the King Muchilinda) and protected by a crown of seven heads of 
the serpent. The Buddha was made in the Cambodian city of Angkor 
Thom during the reign of King Jayavarmon VII, A.D, 1181-1215. 
Four collections, totaling 249 specimens, were received by transfer 
from the Department of the Interior, through Delmas H. Nucker, 
High Commissioner, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, from the 
districts of Yap, Truk, Ponape, and the Marshall Islands. These 
specimens, obtained especially for the division of ethnology, con- 
siderably enrich the material from Micronesia, an area until now not 
well represented in the national collections. Among them are two 
fishing kites from Ifalik, which are flown from canoes and from which 
dangle a ball of cobwebs for catching garfish. After a fish strikes 
the sticky substance it cannot open its mouth. There is a war 
club from Satawan, some excellent knuckle dusters and weather charm 
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