REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 6 



Although the name "National Museum" was sometimes used in 

 the earlier reports of the Smithsonian Institution, it did not appear 

 in any of the laws of Congress until 1875. Its general employment 

 may be said to date from the time of the Philadelphia Centennial 

 Exhibition of 1876, the first exposition in this country in which the 

 Government participated, and the first to make known to vast num- 

 bers of the people of the United States the existence of national col- 

 lections at Washington, as well as new methods of installing and 

 exhibiting museum materials, differing radically from the older 

 cabinets of college or local museums, which had prevailed up to that 

 period. After its close the Government exhibits brought back to 

 Washington, together with the extensive gifts made to the United 

 States by private persons and foreign governments, rendered neces- 

 sary the early erection of a new and separate building, devoted 

 entirely to museum purposes. 



The scope of the National Museum as defined by law comprises 

 practically all branches of science and of the arts which admit of 

 museum treatment. With exceedingly limited means for making 

 purchases, and therefore almost entirely dependent as to the char- 

 acter of its collections upon Government explorations, personal dona- 

 tions, and exchanges, its different departments have had a very 

 unequal growth. The subjects best represented are ethnology and 

 archeology, geology, zoology, and botany. A fair beginning has 

 been made in the exceedingly important branches of the industrial 

 arts and American history, and scarcely more is required to place 

 these two departments on a proper basis than sufficient room to dis- 

 play the necessary collections, which are certain to be received, in 

 greater part through gratuitous contributions, when it is known 

 that the Museum is prepared to care for them. In the department 

 of the fine arts the collection is still very small, but the subject is 

 one which must sooner or later receive earnest consideration by the 

 Government. 



The specimens in all branches are classified in two series — one, 

 generally comprising the bulk of the material, being arranged for 

 the purposes of scientific research and reference in laboratories and 

 storerooms; the other, selected with regard to its general educa- 

 tional value and public interest, and accompanied by descriptive 

 labels, being displayed in glass-covered cases in the public halls. 

 The duplicate specimens not required for exchanges are made up 

 into sets for distribution to schools and colleges, as opportunity 

 offers. Papers descriptive of the collections, both technical and 

 semipopular, are published for gratuitous circulation to the extent 

 of three or more volumes yearly, and, finally, the Museum has come 

 to be regarded as a bureau of information in respect to all subjects 



