1228 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
Since the erection of the present Museum building there have been more than 
12,000 accessions to the collections, chiefly by gifts. From the year 1859 to 1880 the 
accessions numbered 8,475. It is thus evident that within the last eight years the 
number of accessions has been half as large again as during the previous twenty-one. 
Many of the more recent accessions are of very great extent, as for instance the 
bequest of the late Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, which contains 20,000 specimens of 
shells, besides minerals and other objects; the Jeffreys collection of fossil and recent 
shells of Europe, including 40,000 specimens; the Stearns collection of mollusks, 
numbering: 100,000 specimens; the Riley collection of insects, containing 150,000 
specimens; the Catlin collection of Indian paintings, about 500 in number; the col- 
lection of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, for the transportation of which 
to Washington several freight cars were required. 
There are also the extensive collections obtained at.the Fisheries Exhibitions at 
Berlin and London, and at the close of the New Orleans Cotton Centennial; the 
Shepard collection of meteorites; the Wilson collection of archzeological objects 
(more than 12,000 specimens); the Lorillard collection of Central American antiqui- 
ties, and very many others nearly as extensive. In addition to these are the annual 
accretions from the work of the United States Fish Commission, the United States 
Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Ethnology, as well as the contributions from 
several expeditions of the Government, from army and navy officers, and from other 
Government officials. These are very extensive and are yearly increasing in bulk 
and value. 
In the Armory building are stored many hundreds of boxes of valuable material 
which we have not room to unpack, and the great vaults under the Smithsonian 
building and many of the attic and tower rooms are similarly occupied. 
For several important departments of the Museum no exhibition space whatever 
is available, and no portion of the collection can be publicly displayed. Indeed, the 
growth of many of the departments is in large measure prevented by the fact that 
we have no room for additional exhibition cases, or even forstorage. Many valuable 
collections elsewhere than in Washington are at the service of the Museum, but we 
have no space for their reception. 
At the close of the last fiscal year (June 30, 1887) a very careful estimate showed 
that the collections were sixteen times as great in number of specimens as in the year 
1882. I desire to call your attention especially to the inclosed statement bearing 
upon this point. 
The Museum is growing, as it is fitting that the national museum of a great country. 
should grow, and it is not only necessary to care for what is already here, but to pro- 
vide for the reception and display of what is certain to be placed in our hands within 
the next few years. 
The present Museum building is not more than large enough for the ethnological 
and technological material already available. The proposed new building will afford 
accommodation for the natural history collections which are at present very inade- 
quately housed. For instance, the amount of space assigned to the collection of 
mammals is about 6,500 feet. At least double that amount of space will be needed to 
accommodate the material now on hand as soon as the taxidermists of the Museum 
shall have been able to prepare it for exhibition, it being our desire to have mounted 
groups similar to the buffalo family recently finished, in order to preserve for future 
generations representations of the large quadrupeds native to this continent, which 
are on the verge of extinction. 
in the world, is very inadequately shown and requires double the case room now 
available. 
The collection of mollusks, which is one of the most complete in the world and 
contains more than 450,000 specimens, is at present almost entirely unprovided for. 
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