10 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Among the honorary officers having- their laboratories at the Museum 

 are a number of assistants employed by other scientific bureaus to con- 

 duct investigations on material kept here in their charge, and in whose 

 results the Museum shares. 



Many collections have, from time to time, been transferred by the 

 Geological Survey, the Fish Commission, the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and other branches of the Government to the custody of the 

 Museum in advance of their final working up, in order to provide for 

 their safe storage and to secure the better facilities for study here 

 afforded. Under this arrangement the amount of research work car- 

 ried on in the Museum building has been greatly increased. 



Though having little means to expend for field work, members of 

 the Museum staff are occasionally given opportunities to participate 

 in the explorations of other Government bureaus or of private expe- 

 ditions, in connection with which special researches may be carried on, 

 though the chief advantage results from the acquisition of new and 

 valuable material and a knowledge of the conditions under which it 

 occurred in nature. 



AS AN EDUCATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The educational side of the Museum is intended to consist mainly 

 of an exhibition of all the classes of objects which it represents, so 

 mounted, installed, and labeled as to directly interest and instruct the 

 general public. The principal difficulty incident to the proper instal- 

 lation of such a collection, conceding all the space required} lies in the 

 selection of its parts, so that while enough is displayed to convey the 

 amount of information which it is intended to impart, the visitor shall 

 not be overburdened or confused with details. While this policy is 

 being followed in the National Museum, so far as its means permit, 

 the lack of room has always prevented a complete or satisfactory 

 development of the plan, and. every succeeding year the conditions in 

 this respect grow worse instead of better, through the increased crowd- 

 ing of the halls. The advances in recent } 7 ears have been chiefly in 

 the methods of display, in the character of individual and group 

 mountings, and in the labeling, in all of which directions exceptional 

 progress has been made. 



Three years ago it was announced that all of the halls designed for 

 public use were then for the first time permanently open, though none 

 were above addition or improvement, while in some the arrangement 

 was entirely provisional. This was accomplished only by the transfer 

 of large quantities of material to outside storage, hut it has unfortu- 

 nately been again necessary to shut off one or more of the halls from 

 time to time, in order to furnish increased space for workrooms. 



In this connection it seems appropriate to refer to the work of 

 Doctor Goode, than whom no museum administrator ever had a better 



