52 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 
to other temporary quarters of nearly all of the paintings which had 
previously been displayed in this hall. The Evans collection at that 
time numbered 84 canvases. 
The growth of the National Gallery has been so marked that no 
quarters suitable for its installation, either in size or character of 
room or manner of lighting, are to be found in the older buildings. 
While the new building was planned and erected for the natural 
history collections, and none of its space can well be spared for other 
purposes, it contains three sky-lighted halls, one of which it has been 
decided to allot provisionally ( to the Pees of the paintings, rather 
than keep them scattered, in large part inaccessible to the public, and 
thus jeopardize the art interests of the Government now being so 
greatly stimulated through the acts of generous-minded citizens. 
The place selected for aha Gallery in bie new building is the entire 
central part of the middle hall on the main floor diree thy below the 
skylight well and included between the two rows of nine large rec- 
angular piers serving as supports for the second floor. These piers are 
spaced 184 feet apart from center to center. In the arrangements 
effected during the year the southernmost section of 18} feet was 
not utilized, but having been added at the beginning of the new year, 
the entire construction for the Gallery as it now stands may be 
described in this connection. It consists of simple screen walls 
adapted to the hanging of pictures, having a uniform construction 
and height throughout. There is primarily a general inclosing 
wall of this character built against the inner faces of the piers, and 
including a floor space 146 feet long by 48 feet wide, which is the 
total extent of the Gallery. The area so surrounded is then divided 
into eight rooms, symmetrically disposed, besides three short sections 
of corridor running with the longitudinal axis of the hall. The 
largest of the rooms is midway of the inclosure and occupies its 
entire width, measuring 48 by 36 feet. Immediately adjoining it 
both to the north and south is a pair of rooms, the rooms in each pair 
being separated by a 12-foot corridor. These four rooms are of 
equal size and 36 feet long by 18 feet wide. The southern end of the 
inclosure consists of a single room, 48 by 18 feet; and the northern, 
of two small rooms, each 174 by 144 feet, separated by a corridor 18 
feet wide. The general inclosure is entered from the north and 
south only, and each of the rooms, except the two smallest ones, has 
two doorways, all of which are sufficiently large to permit the free 
circulation of visitors. There are no doors, however, and the pro- 
tection of the Gallery is provided for in the measures adopted for 
safeguarding the hall as a whole. The corridors as well as the 
compartments are arranged and used for the installation of paintings. 
The screen walls are built with a core of macite blocks strengthened 
by iron bars and covered with wood as the only convenient medium 
