282 



NATURE 



[January 23, 1896 



positive science since the days of the revival of letters until the 

 present time. 



This library was, in 1865, deposited at the Capitol, as a 

 portion of the Congressional Library. 



The Smithsonian Collection, which includes more than three 

 hundred thousand volumes and parts of volumes, constituting 

 perhaps one-fourth of the National Library, is to be installed in 

 a special stack-room of its own upon the main floor of the 

 new Library Building, with a commodious reading-room ad- 

 jacent for the use of special students. The rapidity with which 

 it is increasing is indicated by the fact that in 1894, 37,952 titles 

 were added. ^ 



The Institution has probably done more towards building up a 

 great library in Washington than would have been possible had 

 all its income been devoted strictly to library work, as was at 

 one time seriously proposed. 



The National Museum. 

 The Smithsonian Institution is the custodian of the National 

 Museum, which is the only lawful place of deposit of " all ob- 

 jects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects 

 of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical 

 specimens, belonging to the United States." The nucleus of 



Fig. 6. — The New Museum Building. 



the collections consists of the specimens brought home by the 

 Wilkes and other exploring expeditions, but for many years the 

 Museum was supported entirely at the expense of the Smithson 

 Fund, and a considerable, portion of the collections is the property 

 of the Institution. Since 1 881, the entire expenses of administra- 

 tion have been met by Congressional appropriations. The 

 appropriations from 1858 to 1880 were only sufficient to meet 

 these expenses in part. 



Prof. Huxley defines a museum as " a consultative library of 

 objects." The National Museum is such a consultative library, 

 and it is a great deal more. It is an agency for the instruction 

 of the people of the whole country, and it keeps in mind the 

 needs of persons whose lives are not occupied in the study of 

 science as well as those of the professional investigator and 

 teacher. 



Its benefits are extended without cost or reserve to hundreds 

 of thousands of visitors from all parts of the United States who 

 pass through its doors each year, as is shown in the following 

 table: 



1 The working libraries of the National Museum and the Bureau of 

 Ethnology are distinct from the general Smithsonian Library, and are 

 separately administered. All of these are placed at the service of advanced 

 students and specialists. 



3,380,253 1,676,543 5,056,796 



And also through the distribution of the duplicate specimens ira 

 the Museum, which are made up into sets, accurately named, 

 and given to public institutions in all parts of the country. 



The history of the Museum is divided 

 into three periods : First, that from the 

 foundation of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion to 1857, during which time speci- 

 mens were collected purely and solely 

 to serve as materials for research, no 

 special effort having been made to 

 publicly exhibit them or to utilise them^ 

 except as a foundation for scientific 

 description and theory. Second, the 

 period from 1857, when the Institution 

 assumed the custody of the " National 

 Cabinet of Curiosities, " to 1 876. During 

 this period the Museum became a place 

 of deposit for scientific material which 

 had already been studied ; this material, 

 so far as practicable, being exhibited ta 

 the public, and thus made to serve ari 

 educational purpose. Third, the present 

 period, beginning in the year 1876, 

 during which the Museum has entered 

 upon a career of active work in gathering 

 collections and exhibiting them on ac- 

 count of their educational value. 



During the first period, the main 

 object of the Museum was scientific 

 research ; in the second, the establish- 

 ment became a museum of record as 

 well as of research ; while in the third 

 period there is growing up also the idea 

 of public education. 



The three ideas. Record, Research and 



Education, co-operative and mutually 



helpful as they are, are essential to the development of every 



great museum. The National Museum endeavours to promote 



them all. 



It is a Museum of Record, in which are preserved the 

 material foundations of an enormous amount of scientific 

 knowledge — the types of numerous past investigations. This 

 is especially the case with those materials that have served as a 

 foundation for the reports upon the resources of the United 

 States. 



It is a Museum of Research, which aims to make its contents- 

 serve in the highest degree as a stimulus to inquiry and a 

 foundation for scientific investigation. Research is necessary 

 in order to identify and group the objects in the most philo- 

 sophical and instructive relations, and its officers are therefore 

 selected for their ability as investigators, as well as their 

 trustworthiness as custodians. 



It is an Educational Museum, through its policy of illustrating 

 by specimens every kind of natural object and every manifestation 

 of human thought and activity, of displaying descriptive labels 

 adapted to the popular mind, and of distributing its publications, 

 and its named series of duplicates. 



The collections are installed, in part, in the Smithsonian 



* Ye.ars of Presidential inaugurations. 



NO. 1369, VOL. 53] 



