SMITHSONIAN'S PART IN WORLD WAR II 471 



With the realization that many thousands of Army and Navy per- 

 sonnel were stationed in far-away areas not actually in combat zones, 

 the Institution compiled and printed a Field Collector's Manual in 

 the hope that its study and use might provide a welcome recreational 

 activity. The pocket-size manual gives detailed instructions as to 

 the preparation and preservation of specimens of mammals, birds, 

 fishes, insects, and many other things that might come under service- 

 men's attention. A thousand copies were given to both Army and 

 Navy to acquaint them with its contents, and more copies were later 

 acquired by both services. 



Many Smithsonian publications issued prior to the war proved to 

 be of direct war usefulness, particularly its series of tables — physical, 

 meteorological, and mathematical — which for many years have been 

 in constant use in laboratories and research centers. Several thousand 

 copies of the Meteorological Tables were requested by Army and Navy 

 officials. Two Smithsonian papers were especially useful to Army 

 and Navy medical units, one on the feeding apparatus of biting and 

 sucking insects affecting man and animals, and another on the mollus- 

 can intermediate hosts of the Asiatic blood fluke. Several hundred 

 copies of each of these papers were required by the armed services. 



MISCELLANEOUS WAR SERVICES 



The Smithsonian library is one of the largest collections in the 

 world of the proceedings and transactions of scientific societies and 

 organizations. During World War II, in which science played so 

 large a part, there was constant library research by many officials of 

 the Army, Navy, and civilian war agencies, and in the resources of 

 the Smithsonian library were found answers to many urgent scientific 

 problems. The library staff aided such investigators to the limit of 

 its ability and enabled them to find many elusive bits of information 

 needed to complete the picture of world-wide operations. Special 

 bibliographies were compiled by the library staff, and many specially 

 needed works were located. A mimeographed statement on the re- 

 sources of the Smithsonian library was distributed through the Eth- 

 nogeographic Board to key men in the Army, Navy, and war agencies 

 to facilitate the finding of source material. 



In addition to the wartime activities at the Institution itself, its 

 administrative officers also served on governmental boards and com- 

 mittees, thereby making their experience available to an ever-widening 

 circle. The Institution was represented in this way on the National 

 Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Public Buildings Adminis- 

 tration, the National Resources Planning Board, the Interdepart- 

 mental Committee on Cooperation with the other American republics, 

 and others. 



