BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES 47 



COLLECTIONS. The readjustment and moving of the collections 

 necessitated by the construction of a new building prevents the com- 

 pilation of statistics regarding the collections. 



The total number of specimens in all branches of natural history 

 amounts to several millions, the annual accretion during several years 

 having averaged about a quarter of a million specimens. An enumer- 

 ation of the type specimens has not recently been made, but the number 

 is exceptionally large. These natural history collections have been 

 received in greater part from government surveys and explorations, 

 and are richest in material from North America . Many other parts of 

 the world are also well represented in one subject or another, especially 

 Central America, the Philippines, Malaysia, and some portions of 

 Europe, Africa, and South America. The deep-water zoological 

 collections from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are the most 

 extensive and important in existence. 



The National Gallery of Art, as the department of fine arts is 

 designated, has come into prominence during the past four years 

 through the bequest of Harriet Lane Johnston, and the gifts of Charles 

 L. Freer and William T. Evans, consisting mainly of paintings and 

 oriental pottery, valued at not less than one and one-half million 

 dollars. 



The department of arts and industries, the proper development 

 of which has been delayed by lack of space, but is now rendered pos- 

 sible by the new building, has had on exhibition the most complete 

 collections of firearms in this country, boat and railroad models, 

 electrical apparatus, t-ime-keeping and measuring devices, ceramics, 

 graphic arts, laces, embroideries, etc. Large collections of other sub- 

 jects are in storage. 



The historical collection is rich in materials illustrative of periods 

 and of important events and personages connected with the history 

 of the United States from the colonial period. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. By congressional act of August 10, 1846, 

 founding the Smithsonian Institution, that establishment was made 

 the custodian of the national collections in both nature and art. The 

 museum branch was definitely organized in 1850, the title "United 

 States National Museum" being authoritatively given by congress in 

 1875. During the first few years the expenses of the museum were 

 wholly met from the Smithsonian fund, and it was not until 1878 that 

 the government began to provide entirely for its maintenance, through 

 annual congressional appropriations. 



