10 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1911. 



bility for the administration of these and subsequent additions to 

 its activities as would weld them into a compact whole, which to- 

 gether form a unique and notable agency for the increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge, for the direction of research, for cooperation with 

 departments of the Government and with universities and scientific 

 societies in America, and likewise afford a definite correspondent to 

 all scientific institutions and men abroad who seek interchange of 

 views or knowledge with men of science in the United States. 



Since that early day the only material change in the scope of the 

 Government Museum has been the addition of a department of 

 American history, intended to illustrate by an appropriate assem- 

 blage of objects the lives of distinguished personages, important 

 events, and the domestic life of the country from the colonial period 

 to the present time. 



The development of the Museum has been greatest in those sub- 

 jects which the conditions of the past 60 years have made most 

 fruitful — the natural history, geology, ethnology, and archeology 

 of the United States, supplemented by many collections from other 

 countries. The opportunities for acquisition in these directions have 

 been mainly brought about through the activities of the scientific 

 and economic surveys of the Government, many of which are the 

 direct outgrowths of earlier explorations, stimulated or directed by 

 the Smithsonian Institution. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876 

 afforded the first opportunity for establishing a department of the 

 industrial arts on a .creditable basis, and of this the fullest advan- 

 tage was taken, though only a part of the collections then obtained 

 could be accommodated in the space available. The department or 

 gallery of the fine arts had made little progress, though not from 

 lack of desire or appreciation, until within the past five years, 

 during which its interests have been markedly advanced. 



With the completion of the new large granite structure on the 

 Mall, the Museum comes virtually into possession of a group of 

 three buildings, in which there is opportunity for a proper system- 

 atic arrangement of its vast and varied collections, as well as a com- 

 prehensive public installation, and under these favorable conditions 

 it may be expected to enter upon an era of renewed prosperity and 

 usefulness. 



While it is the primary duty of a museum to preserve the objects 

 confided to its care, as it is that of a library to preserve its books 

 and manuscripts, yet the importance of public, collections rests not 

 upon the mere basis of custodianship, nor upon the number of speci- 

 mens assembled and their money value, but upon the use to which 

 they are put. Judged by this standard, the National Museum may 

 claim to have reached a high state of efficiency. From an educa- 

 tional point of view it is of great value to those persons who are 



