44 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



leges and higher grades of schools and academies throughout the 

 land, especially in places where museums do not exist, are also being 

 aided in their educational work by sets of duplicate specimens, se- 

 lected and labeled to meet the needs of both teachers and pupils. 



Nor has the elementary or even the higher education been by any 

 means the sole gainer from the work of the Museum. To advance 

 knowledge, to gradually extend the boundaries of learning, has been 

 one of the great tasks to which the Museum, in consonance with the 

 spirit of the Institution, has set itself from the first. Its staff, 

 though chiefly engaged in the duties incident to the care, classifica- 

 tion, and labeling of collections in order that they may be accessible 

 to the public and to students, has yet in the$e operations made im- 

 portant discoveries in every department of the Museum's activities, 

 which have in turn been communicated to other scholars through its 

 numerous publications. But the collections have not been held for the 

 study of the staff nor for the scientific advancement of those be- 

 longing to the establishment. Most freely have they been put at 

 the disposal of investigators connected with other institutions, with- 

 out whose help the record of scientific progress based upon the ma- 

 terial in the Museum would have been greatly curtailed. When it 

 is possible to so arrange, the investigator comes to Washington; 

 otherwise such collections as he needs are sent to him, whether he 

 resides in this country or abroad. In this manner practically every 

 prominent specialist throughout the world interested in the sub- 

 jects here well represented has had some use of the collections, and 

 thereby the National Museum has come to be recognized as a con- 

 spicuous factor in the advancement of knowledge wherever civiliza- 

 tion has a foothold. 



Respectfully submitted. 



W. de C. Ravenel, 

 Administrative Assistant to the Secretary, 

 In charge United States National Museum,. 



Dr. Charles D. Walcott, 



Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



