THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 453 



eign scholars, as well as by purchase, a library has been gathered 

 of enormous value, now numbering over three hundred thousand 

 titles. As already stated, it is merged in the Library of Congress, 

 with the exception of a small collection for the use of the officers, 

 partly housed in the Norman building and partly in the Museum. 

 In the magnificent library building now approaching completion 

 on Capitol Hill, the Smithsonian will have a separate hall for its 

 deposit. 



THE NATIONAL MUSEUM at first occupied the larger halls in 

 the Norman building, and since 1858 special appropriations have 

 been made by Congress for its maintenance ; but, outgrowing its 

 quarters, an independent building was erected by Congressional 

 aid in 1881. This building has an available floor space of one 

 hundred thousand square feet, but has been greatly overcrowded 

 for many years. The director of the museum, who is also Assist- 

 ant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, G. Brown Goode, 

 LL. D., is assisted by thirty -tnree curators in charge of as many 

 departments. These are : arts and industries, embracing twelve 

 sections ; materia medica, animal products, naval architecture, 

 fisheries, foods, historical collections, coins and medals, transpor- 

 tation and engineering, Oriental antiquities, graphic arts, forestry, 

 physical apparatus, helminthology, ethnology, American prehis- 

 toric pottery, prehistoric anthropology, mammals, birds, birds' 

 eggs, reptiles and batrachians, fishes, vertebrate fossils, mollusks, 

 insects, marine invertebrates, comparative anatomy, invertebrate 

 fossils paleozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoic fossil plants, botany, 

 minerals, geology. This mere catalogue of departments shows 

 the prodigious range of subjects, the total number of specimens 

 being more than three and a half millions. Nearly a quarter 

 million of specimens were added in the twelve months ending 

 1892. The growth of the museum is due to many sources ; these 

 comprise the results of exchanges both abroad and at home, ex- 

 plorations by different departments of Government and by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, collections secured through gift of for- 

 eign governments, and, most important of all, the collections ob- 

 tained from several local and international exhibitions, in which 

 the museum has always taken an active part. 



An important activity of the museum is its generous distri- 

 bution of duplicate specimens in natural history to scientific 

 societies, colleges, and other educational institutions throughout 

 the United States. Between 1871 and 1890, two hundred and 

 seventy-eight thousand specimens were so distributed. 



The museum is a favorite place of resort on the part of resi- 

 dents in, and visitors to, the Capital. In the year ending June 

 30, 1893, over three hundred thousand persons availed them- 

 selves of its privileges. Their examination of the objects is much 



