420 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



effort however on the part of the Smithsonian Institution to utilize 

 this material in the interest of science and education, tends to keep 

 down the mass, though it is only at the expense of the incessant 

 activity and constant labor of the Museum force that this object is 

 in any measure accomplished. - - - It may be proper to state 

 that for the exhibition of the full series of objects now in possession 

 of the Institution, and not including any unnecessary duplicates, 

 much ampler accommodations will be needed than can be had in 

 the building; and if these are to be displayed as they should be, it 

 will be necessary at no distant day to provide means for extending 

 the space, either by a transfer of the entire collection to new build- 

 ings, or by making additions to that of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 In illustration of this statement it may be remarked that of sixty- 

 seven thousand specimens of birds entered in the catalogues of the 

 museum, and of which more than forty thousand are on hand, 

 (the remainder having been distributed,) less than five thousand are 

 mounted and on exhibition, these occupying fully two-fifths of the 

 present hall : the rest are preserved as skins, in chests, drawers, and 

 boxes, and of them fifteen thousand or three times the number at 

 present on exhibition, require to be displayed for the proper illus- 

 tration of even American ornithology. The urgency for additional 

 room is still greater for the mammals. Here, out of some five or 

 six thousand specimens, less than so many hundred are exhibited, 

 the remainder alone being almost sufficient to occupy half of the 

 hall. Of many thousands of skeletons of mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 and fishes, a very small percentage is shown to the public, while 

 exhibition-room to the amount of thousands of square feet is 

 required for specimens that now occupy drawers in side apartments. 

 Of the very large collection of alcoholic specimens which constitute 

 the most important material in every public museum, scarcely any- 

 thing is on exhibition, although the selection of a single series for 

 this purpose is very desirable." * 



" The Museum portion of the Smithsonian edifice consists of two 

 rooms of about 10,000 square feet area each, with a connecting 

 range and gallery of about 5,000 square feet. The specimens in 

 cases are at present very much crowded, while very many others are 

 in boxes occupying the passages and intermediate spaces. The 

 basement of the Institution, nearly 400 feet long, is a series of 

 store-rooms for the reception of portions of the collection not yet 

 exhibited in the upper halls, and thus without benefit to the gen- 

 eral public. - - - An estimate of 25,000 square feet, or a space 

 equal to that of the upper halls, is by no means extravagant for the 

 proper display of the specimens thus excluded. 



* Smithsonian Report for 1873, pp. 49, 50. 



