2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
In 1954, for the first time in the long history of the Smithsonian 
Institution, a fully outlined program was adopted for the progressive 
improvement of all its exhibition halls and for the modern presenta- 
tion of tens of thousands of appropriate objects from the great na- 
tional collections that are in its charge. This modernization is now 
complete in 17 major galleries. To put this in another way, a total of 
about 80,000 square feet of exhibition space has now been transformed, 
and 673 separate exhibit units have been fully reorganized and mod- 
ernized for the benefit and education of the public. 
Before this modernization program began, many of the Smith- 
sonian Institution exhibits had not been changed for as long as 75 
years. Amazing as it may seem, the great and often unique treasures 
of the Institution, which today include over 52 million cataloged ob- 
jects, were still being displayed in a manner that had long before be- 
come outmoded in almost every other national museum in the world. 
When the present transformation began, for example, gas fixtures 
were still in place, although not in use, in some of our exhibition halls. 
In a few large sections of Smithsonian buildings there was as recently 
as 5 years ago no provision for artificial light of any kind either 
in display cases or in public spaces. This meant that on many winter 
afternoons some of the great treasures of the Smithsonian were almost 
invisible to visitors. 
It may be pointed out that all around the globe, especially since 
the Second World War, there has been a new recognition of the role 
of the museum as a public information center. More and more mu- 
seums are seen as places needed to inspire each new generation with 
the kind of patriotism that is based on a valid understanding of the 
factors that have led to national growth. The history of the devel- 
opment of science, for example, as displayed in a modern museum 
has a significant function in interesting and inspiring a real interest 
in science on the part of school boys and girls. 
This new museum philosophy has been wholeheartedly accepted and 
adopted at the Smithsonian. The experts in each of its great sub- 
ject-matter fields have given much thought to developing the best ways 
to present their exhibits so as to meet this modern and challenging 
view of what a museum should be. The present objective of renova- 
tion at the Smithsonian, therefore, is not only to show many interest- 
ing objects in a clear way but also to explain how and why the partic- 
ular items selected for display are intellectually significant. An old 
shoe with a wooden sole is unimportant alone, but when shown as part 
of the field equipment of a soldier of the Confederate States of 
America it explains much about the problems of equipment during the 
Civil War. 
At the present time as a visitor studies the presentation of objects 
in any of the modernized exhibition halls of the Institution, he can 
