32 REPOKT OF THE SEOKETARY. 



tion of new material is made possible only by transl'errin<r othei- collections to 

 storage or by crowding the exhibits so closely together as to render them practically 

 useless to the public. 



The gallery of the northwest court has afforded temporary accommodations for the 

 ethnological material obtained from the Philippine Islands, while the other galleries 

 assigned to the Department of Anthropology^ have been utilized in relieving the 

 general congestion which of late years has become so noticeable throughout the 

 Museum building. The large ethnological collections received from Dr. William L. 

 Abbott and from the Museum-Gates expedition, with many others of equal impor- 

 tance, have been stored away for the present. Special attention has been paid to the 

 labeling of the historical collections, and conspicuous labels now indicate the con- 

 tents of the various halls, alcoves, and cases. The study collection of Eskimo 

 objects has been rearranged and placed temporarily in storage cases in the north- 

 west range. As it has been impossible to make the repairs called for in the hall 

 devoted to Prehistoric Archeology, it has remained closed -during nearly the entire 

 year. 



In the Department of Biology good results have been obtained by the rearrange- 

 ment and refitting of cases, especially those containing the exhibits of mammals, 

 insects, fishes, and marine invertebrates, and much progress has been made in label- 

 ing both the small American mammals and the Old World series. A new mounting 

 has been made of the very beautiful Argus ])heasants, which were presented by Dr. 

 William L. Abbott some years ago, and it is now one of the most attractive of all 

 the exhibition groups. 



The geological halls remain much th6 same as last year because no additional 

 space has become available, bnt there has been some expansion in the exhiljit of 

 fossil vertebrates, to which a specimen of Claosauru.'i will shortly be added, as well 

 as the mounted skeleton of a mastodon. The cases containing the nonmetallic min- 

 erals and the geographic exhibit of economic minerals have been carefully cleaned 

 and the specimens rearranged, while the case in the west-south range, in which the 

 stratigraphic; and historical collections are exhibited, has been reconstructed and the 

 specimens have been reinstalled. A large number of labels and reference cards have 

 been prepared, and some progress has been made in the preparation of the card cat- 

 alogue of type material. 



Visitors. — The total number of visitors to the Museum building was 315,307, and 

 to the Smithsonian building 181,174, an increase in the first instance of about <S1 per 

 cent and in the latter of about 26 per cent over the previous year. 



Meetings and lectures. — The use of the lecture hall was granted to the Biological 

 Society of Washington for a series of five scientific lectures given between February 

 14 and March 14. The Naval Medical School and the Army Medical School also 

 held their graduating exercises there on April 4 and 14, respectively, and the annual 

 spring meeting of the National Academy of Sciences was held in the same place from 

 April 21 to 23. 



Publications. — Somewhat more than the usual numl)er of publications were issued 

 during the past year, and it is estimated that the distril)ution to libraries and indi- 

 viduals, both at home and abroad, amounted to about 45,000 volumes and separate 

 papers. 



The new publications of the year consisted of the Annual Report for 1900; the 

 second volume of Mr. Ridgway's monograph on The Birds of North and Middle 

 America; A List of North American Lepidoptera, by Dr. Harrison G. Dyar; volume 

 24 of the Proceedings, in bound form; the separate ])apers, 31 in number, consti- 

 tuting volume 25, and the first 27 papers of volume 26 of the Proceedings. A 

 pamphlet of instructions to collectors of anthropological objects, with special refer- 

 ence to the Philippine Islands and other insular possessions, prejyared by Mr. Wil- 

 liam H. Holmes and Prof. O. T. Mason, was issued as Part (i of Bulletin 39. 



