FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1895-1897. 1723 
annually, and as largely comes from remote as the nearest States, 
perpetually asking for or giving special information. 
In 1879 the present Museum building was authorized to be con- 
structed, at a cost of $250,000, and was completed for that sum. It 
was, I believe, roughly planned by General Meigs. The interior of 
the building is appropriate for its use, while the exterior has won less 
commendation. Although it covers 3} acres of ground, another 
building of equal or larger dimensions is already an urgent necessity. 
The additional building will be placed west of the Smithsonian, and 
occupy there a like space and position with that on the east side of 
the Smithsonian, but will be one story higher, and with a cellar. The 
cost will be something more, of course, than was that of the present 
building, but it will be built with the same strict economy as was the 
first. 
The great lack of room for the proper exhibition of gifts, or of any 
materials collected for the Museum, tends to retard its proper growth 
and value. A large additional amount of room is greatly needed to 
illustrate the natural wealth of our country, of which many more 
specimens deserve to be gathered and all classified by States. The 
minerals, marbles, and building stones of some of our States are now 
fairly represented, but a better and more complete collection might 
be obtained from many more of them. 
The congested and present crowded:condition of the Museum is 
visible, of course, to all who enter it; but I do not suppose that Mem- 
bers of Congress can be generally aware of the great amount of 
material which has been already collected, prepared, and labeled, with 
much labor, that has been boxed up and is now stored away in various 
odd places, uninsured, and entirely hidden from view. Some of these 
materials have been temporarily in the lecture room, and many out- 
of-the-way corners are also thus monopolized. 
Some valuable materials, for want of room to receive them, have 
been and are now in the basement of the museum of Yale College. 
The great herbarium, the most important collection of American 
plants in the world, has to be stored at present by the Agricultura] 
Department. 
In the basement of the Smithsonian Institution and in its towers a 
space equal to 200,000 cubic feet is crowded to the utmost extent with 
boxed and labeled material. In one basement room are packed 50,000 
skins of birds, and 50,000 more are in the gallery, and it must be 
remembered that we have the most beautiful and the widest collection 
of birds of any country in the world. 
There are various sheds in scattered places and one temporarily hired, 
with an estimated capacity of 170,000 cubic feet, fully packed with 
valuable material. None of these ephemeral structures, containing 
