REPORT OF NATIONAL, MUSEUM, 1911. 11 



so fortunate as to reside in Washington or who are able to visit 

 the Nation's Capital. In its well-designed cases, in which every 

 detail of structure, appointment, and color is considered, a selec- 

 tion of representative objects is placed on view to the public, all 

 being carefully labeled individually and in groups. The child as 

 well as the adult has been provided for, and the kindergarten pupil 

 and the high-school scholar can be seen here, supplementing their 

 classroom games or studies. Under authority from Congress, the 

 small colleges and higher grades of schools and academies through- 

 out the land, especially in places where museums do not exist, are 

 also being aided in their educational work by sets of duplicate speci- 

 mens, selected and labeled to meet the needs of both teachers and 

 pupils. 



Nor has the elementary or even the higher education been by any 

 means the sole gainer from the work of the Museum. To advance 

 knowledge, to gradually extend the boundaries of learning, has been 

 one of the great tasks to which the Museum, in consonance with the 

 spirit of the Institution, has set itself from the first. Its staff, though 

 chiefly engaged in the duties incident to the care, classification, and 

 labeling of collections in order that they may be accessible to the 

 public and to students, has yet in these operations made important 

 discoveries in every department of the Museum's activities, which 

 have in turn been communicated to other scholars through its nu- 

 merous publications. But the collections have not been held for 

 the study of the staff nor for the scientific advancement of those be- 

 longing to the establishment. Most freely have they been put at the 

 disposal of investigators connected with other institutions, and, in 

 fact, without the help of many such the record of scientific progress 

 based upon the material in the Museum would be greatly curtailed. 

 When it is possible to so arrange, the investigator comes to Wash- 

 ington ; otherwise such collections as he needs are sent to him, whether 

 he resides in this country or abroad. *Ln this manner practically 

 every prominent specialist throughout the world interested in the 

 subjects here well represented has had some use of the collections, 

 and thereby the National Museum has come to be recognized as a con- 

 spicuous factor in the advancement of knowledge wherever civiliza- 

 tion has a foothold. 



