FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1875-1877. 7-19 



1. The Smitlisonian Institution. This display contained a full series 

 of all the publications of the Institution and charts illustrating its 

 system of international exchanges, with a set of large charts, showing 

 the mean temperature and the rainfall in the United States. 



2. National Museum, undei* the direction of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. In the museum section were shown collections illustrating the 

 economical mineral wealth of the United States, in a series of ores of 

 the precious and baser metals and their metallurgy, including speci- 

 mens of the metals and their simple applications; the materials used 

 in the manufacture of glass, such as sand, soda, etc., and the earth 

 and clays, with their applications in tiles, terra cotta, bricks, and 

 pottery; the different varieties of coal, petroleum; samples of the 

 principal building stones, as marble, granite, etc. 



The animal section contained, first, representations of the animals 

 of the United States of economical importance to the country, as fur- 

 nishing food, ivory, bone, leather, glue, furs, bristles, oil, etc.; second, 

 the apparatus by which these animals are pursued and captured; third, 

 the means by which they are utilized for the wants or luxuries of man 

 when taken; fourth, specimens of the products of such utilization and 

 their simple applications, and, fifth, the methods by which they are 

 protected and multiplied. 



The United States Fish Commission. In this was shown a series of 

 models in plaster or papier-mache of the principal fishes and cretaceans 

 of the United States, and photographs and original drawings of the 

 same, as furnishing oil, bone, or manure, together with the apparatus 

 of pursuits and capture; models of boats of different styles of con- 

 struction, and special illustrations of the whale fishery. Also the 

 methods of fish culture, in illustrations of hatching boxes, carrying 

 vessels, models of fish ways, etc. This display and that of the animal 

 department of the Smithsonian exhibit were more or less united, and 

 illustrated not only the methods and appliances of civilized man in this 

 connection, but also those of the American savage. 



Public opinion in regard to the Government exhibit. As already 

 remarked, the officers in charge of the Government exhibit were unable 

 to make it as complete as they had hoped, on account of the reduced 

 appropriation for the purpose; but as it was, it was considered by all 

 visitors as decidedly the best part of the International Exhibition, in 

 view of the extent and exhaustiveness of the collection and the method 

 and order of its display. 



No special catalogue of the Government exhibits was printed, 

 authority not having been obtained from Congress for the purpose, 

 although a very full catalogue had been prepared. 



The building was constantly the resort of intelligent visitors from 

 all parts of the world, and a great many critical reports have been 

 published already in foreign journals in regard to this display. Pro- 



