REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 13 



harmonize the parts and perfect the many details. At this stage they 

 were, on January i!T. approved by the Secretary of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, with the advice and consent of the Chancellor of the Insti- 

 tution and the chairman of the executive committee, as provided by 

 the resolution of the Board of Regents. About this time also the 

 expert personal services of Prof. S. Homer Woodbridge, of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were engaged to plan the 

 mechanical equipment of the building, including the apparatus for its 

 heating, ventilation, and electric lighting. 



The excavation for the building, the contract for which had been 

 awarded to the Cranford Paving Company, of Washington, was begun 

 on June 15, li»(»4. The lateness of the season precluded the holding of a 

 formal ceremom T on that occasion, but the first spadeful of earth Mas 

 turned by Secretary Langlev in the presence of the superintendent of 

 construction, the architects, and the employees of the Museum and 

 Institution. Addressing the superintendent, Mr. Green, the Secretary, 

 remarked: 



On behalf of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, with the consent of the 

 chancellor and of the chairman of the executive committee, I now authorize you, 

 in accordance with the act of Congress, to proceed with the construction of the new 

 building for the United States National Museum, designed to increase and diffuse the 

 knowledge of the arts and sciences among the people. 



The site of the building was also inclosed with a' high board fence 

 and a small frame structure was erected as the headquarters of super- 

 intendence. Immediately following the excavation, sometime during 

 the summer, the work of building the foundations will be begun. 



GROWTH AND NEEDS OF THE MUSEUM. 



On preceding pages a brief history and a summary of the objects of 

 the National Museum have been given. Becoming a prominent fea- 

 ture in the early programme of the Institution, the course of the 

 Museum ran smoothly as long as there was room for its development. 

 Its scope, defined by the organizing act of Congress, was as compre- 

 hensive as the sphere of human knowledge in so far as could be com- 

 passed by Museum methods. In the beginning its collections were 

 practically all of natural history. Then appeared ethnology and 

 archeology, and finally the arts and industries as exemplified in the 

 work of modern man. In fact, the Museum building proper was 

 intended mainly for the last-named subjects. So rapid, however, has 

 been the growth of the collections that some confusion has resulted in 

 their arrangement, and their appearance at present is no criterion of 

 the wealth of the Museum or of its scope and anticipations. The 

 .Museum has back of it all the Government surveys, whether at home 

 or abroad — a guaranty of the value of at least a largo proportion of its 



