<< — 
FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS, 1889-1891. 15038 
nent property of the people, and the nucleus of the great collections now in the 
Museum building, and the same usage prevailed at the New Orleans Exposition in 
1885. 
In 1888, however, on the occasion of the Cincinnati Exposition, the rulings of the 
Treasury were quite at variance with those on previous occasions, and it was decided 
by the special auditor in charge of the accounts that no new objects could be obtained 
except such as might be necessary to ‘‘complete series’’ already in the Museum. 
This ruling was far from being in the interest of economy, and its enforcement inter- 
fered sadly with the success of our participation in the Cincinnati Exhibition. 
If the Smithsonian Institution should be instructed to participate in the exhibition 
at Chicago, it will undoubtedly be necessary to obtain large quantities of new mate- 
rial, which must be either purchased, collected in the field, or, in the case of the 
models and other similar preparations, which are most effective on such occasions, 
made in the workshops of the Museum. 
The exhibition of such new material will be more essential on this occasion than 
hitherto, for two principal reasons: 
(1) That at a time when the capital will be an especial object of interest for for- 
eign visitors, it will be undesirable to denude its halls of any large number of the 
objects now on exhibition. 
(2) That many of the most attractive objects have already been shown at exposi- 
tions in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Louisville, and elsewhere, and the public visiting 
the Chicago exhibition would not be satisfied to look at them again. 
In planning for the proposed exhibition, those departments would be selected in 
which it would seem possible, within the brief time available, to make the most 
imposing and instructive displays, and in which it is believed that results can be 
produced which would not be discreditable even in comparison with the success of 
the Paris Exposition. I will mention some of the directions in which satisfactory 
results may undoubtedly be secured. 
(1) The Smithsonian Institution should exhibit its own history, condition, and 
functions, and the general results of its operations during its forty-six years of exist- 
ence, including its publications, explorations, and researches, twenty-five years’ 
period of meteorological observations, etc. It may also with propriety undertake to 
set forth the history of American science and exploration from the time of the 
discovery of the continent to the present day, and the activities of the numerous 
scientific institutions and societies of the United States, the progress of scientific 
exploration by the Government of the United States, and by individuals and foreign 
governments in all parts of the American continent, together with a collection of 
portraits of representative scientific men of the world, so far as they have been asso- 
ciated with the development of scientific thought in America. 
(2) The National Museum, as on previous occasions, would undertake to illustrate 
the natural resources of the United States and their utilization, so far as this subject 
was not undertaken by other departments. 
In this connection special attention should be given to the animal resources of the 
continent. It would be desirable to show large groups mounted by the best methods 
of modern taxidermy of the various quadrupeds of America which are fast approach- 
ing extermination—buffalo, elk, moose, musk ox, caribou, mountain goat, mountain 
sheep, the five species of deer and beaver, the walrus, the fur seal, the sea elephant, 
and others equally interesting, and equally liable to extinction, though not so large; 
indeed, every species of American animal, bird, reptile, or invertebrates which is of 
sufficient importance to man, at least so far as they are of sufficient interest to man- 
kind, to have been designated by popular names. 
In this connection may be represented, also, all methods of hunting employed in 
America, especially by uncivilized man. Supplementing the whole, a display of the 
various products of the animal kingdom used by man in his artsand industries. This 
