APPENDIX 1 
REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
Srr: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condi- 
tion and operations of the United States National Museum for the 
fiscal year ended June 30, 1949. 
COLLECTIONS 
Approximately 446,000 specimens (88,000 less than last year) 
were incorporated into the National collections during the year and 
were distributed among the six departments as follows: Anthropology, 
4,099; zoology, 279,621; botany, 38,708; geology, 109,499; engineering 
and industries, 2,610; and history, 11,104. The decrease in the number 
of specimens accepted for the Museum’s collections may be attributed 
in part to the inadequacy of available storage facilities for the preser- 
vation of such materials; consequently, a finer screening of collections 
from prospective donors is now mandatory. Most of the accessions 
were acquired as gifts from individuals or as transfers from Govern- 
ment departments and agencies. The complete report on the Museum, 
published as a separate document, includes a detailed list of the year’s 
acquisitions, of which the more important are summarized below. 
Catalog entries in all departments now total 31,679,046.! 
Anthropology.—The most noteworthy additions to the archeological 
collections were as follows: A black-figured Attic lecythus of the fifth 
century, B. C., presented to President Harry S. Truman as a token of 
gratitude from the people of Greece and lent by the President; 11 
gold-plated ornaments from Veraguas, Panam4, and 2 gold fishhooks 
from Colombia, a gift from Karl P. Curtis; and 47 prehistoric earthen- 
ware vessels from the Valley of Nasca, Peri, presented to the late 
Gen. John J. Pershing by former Peruvian President Augusto B. 
Leguia and donated by General John J. Pershing. 
Handicrafts and material culture of many of the world’s peoples 
were represented in the additions to the ethnological collections. An 
unusually important collection of 51 specimens representing the work 
of American tribes of the Great Plains and the Great Lakes, of Arizona 
and New Mexico, as well as of the Eskimo of Alaska, of the Igorot of 
the Philippine Islands, and of the Marquesans and Maori of the 
1 The revised tabulation of the National collection of insects during the past year, in addition to the 
normal increment, has increased last year’s total by more than 4,400,000 specimens. 
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