BUREAUS, DIVISIONS, AND OFFICES. 39 



W. B. ^N^assan, deceased, was the first chief. The present chief, Frank 

 H. Hitchcock, was appointed January 9, 1897. 



LIBRARY. 



The library of the Department was first officially recognized by the 

 appointment of J. B. Eussell as librarian in 1871. The collection of 

 books had its origin in the transfer in 18G9 of the works on agricnlture 

 from the library of the Patent Office. Additions have been made from 

 time to time by exchange and purchase. The library now contains 

 58,000 volumes, and is undoubtedly the best separate collection on 

 agriculture and allied subjects in the United States — probably the 

 best in the world. It comprises complete sets of State agricultural 

 publications and files of many of the agricultural journals from the 

 beginning; a large collection of the official reports on agricultural sub- 

 jects issued by foreign governments; important collections in botany, 

 horticulture, forestry, zoology, and entomology; numerous sets of scien- 

 tific serials ; a well-selected collection of encyclopedias, atlases, and other 

 general reference works, and a small collection of biography, history, 

 and general literature. A quarterly list of the additions to the library 

 is published, and several lists of books on agricultural subjects have 

 been issued. Succeeding Mr. Eussell as librarian, Mrs. Ernestine H. 

 Stevens served from I^ovember 1, 1877. The present librarian, William 

 Parker Cutter, was appointed August 28, 1893. 



THE MUSEUM. 



The museum had its beginning in the old agricultural bureau of the 

 Patent Office, the nucleus of the collection being a large series of fruit 

 models and stuffed birds, the work of Prof. Townend Glover, of that 

 Bureau. When the Department of Agriculture was organized, in 1862, 

 Mr. Glover became its entomologist, and the museum was established 

 under him in 1864 as a recognized institution. From this time forward 

 its collections were steadily increased by donations and purchases, 

 and when the plans were being drawn for a separate building for the 

 Department of Agriculture, the large hall now used for the library 

 was planned, to be devoted to museum purposes. The building was 

 occupied about the beginning of 1868, and the museum moved from 

 the Patent Office. About this time the Glover collection of fruit 

 models, birds, and insects was purchased by a special appropriation of 

 $10,000, the Government having had the loan of it for over ten years. 

 Professor Glover was assisted in the museum work at the time by the 

 assistant entomologist, Mr. Charles Richards Dodge, who, after 1870, 

 had i^ractical charge of the museum until 1878. 



The valuable collections secured from foreign governments at the 

 close of the Centennial Exposition necessitated the erection of galleries 

 on either side of the museum hall, upon which the new material was 

 arranged in 1877. After that year. Professor Glover and Mr. Dodge 



