REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



tion. and classification of the collections of the Institution and the Gov- 

 ernment, which relate to nearly every branch of human knoAviedge. 

 The ])lacino- of these, when arranged by their curators, on public exhi- 

 bition in such a manner as best to alEford to visitors an opportunity 

 to acquire accurate general information concerning them may be 

 regarded as a necessary adjunct, and serves not only as a means of 

 instruction but also as a source of entertainment to the pul)lic. 



The foundation of the Museum collections was the number of ethno 

 logical and ])iological objects brought to the United States more than 

 half a century ago by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, and the collec- 

 tions made by explorers for the Smithsonian Institution, to whose care 

 these materials and every other object of natural history were later 

 transferred.^ The preservation and classification of these objects was 

 the work of those who for a number of years had charge of the Gov- 

 ernment collections in the United States Patent Office, and when these 

 were transferred to the custody of the Smithsonian Institution and were 

 placed on exhibition, and as other large collections were added to the 

 Museum, there came gradually into existence a store of valuable objects, 

 which were, however, unconsecutive and not only often duplicated, ])ut 

 frequently unrelated owing to the mode of their acquisition. 



At the close of the Centennial Exhi])ition of 1876 at Philadelphia a 

 great number of collections, chiefly of industrial interest, became the 

 property of the Smithsonian IMuseum. For the accommodation of 

 these objects, a one-story building was Ijegun in 1879 and completed in 

 1881, containing an area of about 80,000 square feet, and built in the 

 cheapest manner. This structure was so entireh' inadequate to the 

 object for which a l)iailding of five or six stories over the same area 

 would have barely sufficed, that within two years from its completion 

 it was found to be too limited for the display of the exhi1)its then actually 

 on hand. 



It was proposed as earl}' as 1882 to provide additional quarters for 

 the Museum, with the object of giving accommodation also to the Geo- 

 logical Survej', there being a proviso in the bill, however, that the pro- 



^ ' ' Whenever suitable arrangements can he made from time to time for their recep- 

 tion, all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural 

 history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United 

 States, which may be in the city of Washington, in whosesoever custody they may be, 

 shall be delivered to such persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to 

 receive them, and shall be so arranged and (classified in the building erected for the 

 Institution as best to facilitate the examination and study of them; and whenever 

 new specimens in natural history, geology^ or mineralogy are obtained for the 

 Museum of the Institution, by exchanges of duplicate specimens, which the Regents 

 may in their discretion make, or by donation, which they may receive, or other- 

 wise, the Regents shall cause such new specimens to be appropriately classed and 

 arranged." (Sec. 5586, U. S. Revised Statutes.) 



