18 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Museum attempts to do the same within the limits of its scope, but it has 

 an added function in that it shares a part of the executive work of the 

 Government. The correspondence with members of Congress and with 

 the Executive Departments is very large, but not nearly as extensive 

 as that with the public, and all is supposed to relate to business on which 

 the Museum only is in a position to furnish information. The fre- 

 quent expositions also greatly increase the burden of work, for, though 

 special appropriations are made for them, it is necessary to call upon 

 the skilled employees of the Museum to a large extent. This means 

 that a proportionately larger force is required than in museums gener- 

 ally, and the increase is as necessary outside as within the scientific 

 staff. 



It is not to be expected that a complete staff will ever be within the 

 means of the Museum — that is to say, a staff sufficient to do especially 

 all the classificatory work required. Such a staff rftis nowhere been 

 assembled. In a proper organization, however, there should be an 

 adequate number of experts, some at least of the highest rank, to con- 

 trol and supervise the several subjects represented. In this respect 

 the National Museum is now far below the standard. The members 

 of its staff, while acting as custodians of the collections, should be 

 competent to assist extensively in their classification, should appre- 

 ciate their value and significance, and should have the faculty of 

 keeping order, so that any specimen in their care can readily be found. 



The classification of collections must always be largely done by out- 

 siders, the result of the specialization of study, and this is the course 

 now almost universally pursued as a matter of necessity when large 

 collections are being worked up. In accordance with this plan, the 

 National Museum has now many experts at work on special parts of 

 its collections, most of them- connected with institutions in the United 

 States, but some abroad. In this way the collections are being classi- 

 fied in the most accurate manner possible. When they are returned 

 to Washington they need the same oversight as before, but their 

 value has been enhanced by the fact that the specimens are no longer 

 an uncertain quantity. 



Other parts of the business of the Museum can not be carried on in 

 the same way — the administration, the correspondence, the care of 

 the collections and their installation for reference or exhibition, the 

 watch service, the skilled help in the mechanical departments and in 

 the preparation of specimens, and the labor required to keep the 

 buildings clean, to do the moving and lifting and to assist in every 

 branch of work — the workers in these directions can not be omitted 

 from the staff, nor can their labor be performed by volunteer assistance. 



Among other important needs of the Museum are means for main 

 taming its library on a better basis. The library is purely technical, 

 having no other use than to provide for the working up of the collec- 



