oy a a Aas 242 ES oy TA ee 
FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1895-1897. 1719 
unnecessary and unusual effort, and that the fullest results are not 
realized from the appropriations which are made for this branch of the 
(OUTS | i 
Another result is that the value of the collections, the property of 
the nation, is not increasing as rapidly as it would otherwise do. The 
amount of valuable material presented and bequeathed to the Museum 
is not as great as it seemed likely to be a few years ago. Nothing 
which is offered is refused, but the authorities of the Museum do not 
feel at liberty to ask for gifts when they can not assure the givers that 
they can be suitably cared for; and persons having collections to give, 
being aware of the lack of room, naturally prefer to place their gifts 
in institutions where there is room to receive them. 
Notwithstanding these hindrances to the Museum’s progress, the 
increment from legitimate sources, especially from the various Depart- 
ments of the Government, which are required by law to deposit their 
accumulations here, was during the year 1895 about 127,000 specimens. 
In 1894 the accéssions were more numerous, the total exceeding 
171,000. This large increase was in part at least due to the fact that a 
large number of collections were acquired at the close of the World’s 
Fair in Chicago. These were almost without exception collections 
which had been prepared by foreign exhibitors with the Smithsonian 
Institution in mind as the ultimate place of deposit. 
It would have been possible to have obtained an immense number 
of specimens on this occasion, but it was deemed proper to refrain 
from efforts in this direction, not only because of the considerations 
just referred to, but also on account of the desire of the people of 
Chicago to retain such objects in their own city as a beginning toward 
a great civic museum which might serve as a permanent memorial of 
the World’s Columbian Exposition. It has always been the policy of 
the Smithsonian Institution to encourage the development of such 
institutions throughout the United States, and to assist in developing 
them, and on this account many proffers of specimens were declined, 
with the recommendation that they be offered to the Chicago museum, 
and, so far as it was possible to do so, the attention of exhibitors who 
had collections to dispose of was directed toward that institution. 
A census of the number of specimens now contained in the various 
’ departments of the Museum shows that the total is about 3, 500,000, 
almost all of which have been acquired by gift, in exchange for other 
specimens, or as an equivalent for publications. 
