36 EEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 



While the work of the division of history is being efficiently and 

 zealously canned on, and the valuable collections with which it is 

 charged are strictly safeguarded, the present personnel is inadequate 

 to develop a large part of the resources of the division, none of 

 which is without popular interest. The more prominent objects at 

 least are promptly catalogued, labeled, and installed, but for the 

 early classification, registration, and arrangement of such classes of 

 material as are represented by the large collection of postage stamps, 

 involving an immense amount of detailed labor, the emplo3^ment of 

 additional expert services has become necessary. The public installa- 

 tion in the west-north range of the older Museum building, which 

 had been allotted to the division for the extension of its exhibition 

 series, was provisionally completed during the year. It comprises 

 15 cases of the Gray pattern containing the collection of AYashing- 

 toniana and many other relics, and 29 upright and slope-top cases 

 containing historical documents and maps, the Cromwell collection 

 of postage stamps, the series of Polish coins received during the year, 

 besides various other objects. The walls of the room, moreover, are 

 quite fully covered by the historical paintings belonging to the 

 Museum, the number of which has recently been appreciably in- 

 creased. The conditions in the north or main hall have been greatly 

 improved by the relief so afforded, and, while there is still more 

 crowding than should be allowed, the historical exhibition is to be 

 regarded as much more satisfactorily displayed than at any time in 

 the past. Much progress was made during the year in the work of 

 cataloguing and labeling, and the reserve collections were rendered 

 more accessible through the assignment of additional storage space. 



The assistant curator of the division, Mr. T. T. Belote, prepared 

 for publication a descriptive catalogue of the Washington relics in 

 the possession of the Museum, and reported upon many objects 

 received for identification. 



Wo7'k of the ^yreparators. — The principal work of the preparators, 

 under the supervision of the head curator of the department, con- 

 sisted in the construction, coloring, and installation of lay figure 

 groups of Indians and the coloring of casts of antiquities for the ex- 

 hibition series, in which connection the services of Mr. H. W. Hend- 

 ley were chiefly utilized. A number of figures for these groups were 

 modeled by Mr. U. S. J. Dunbar, sculptor, of Washington, and Mr. 

 Frank Micka, also a sculptor of Washington, was engaged for a time 

 under Dr. Hrdlicka in modeling and casting busts of Indians for the 

 Panama-California Exposition. Certain work in the line of prehis- 

 toric archeology was also performed for the same exposition by Mr. 

 J. L. Nusbaum, of Greeley, Colo. 



Exhibition collections. — The progress made in the installation of 

 the exhibition collections, of which accounts have been given in con- 



