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FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1895-1897. ° UTP 
of the necessity of paying therefrom the salaries of employees engaged upon the 
National Herbarium, which have hitherto been paid from the appropriation for the 
Department of Agriculture. 
The demands upon the Museum for information and specimens by the public 
educational institutions and the people of the several States and Territories have very 
largely increased, and can not be adequately met without more liberal appropriations 
for services and material objects. 
Materials for the formation of a museum come into possession of the Government 
through multifarious channels, but a museum formed chiefly in this manner suffers 
later from unnecessary accumulations of objects of certain kinds and from the absence 
of others. This is true of the National Museum. At the outset no additions were 
unwelcome, and the expectation that all important deficiencies would be supplied 
might properly be indulged in. As the years have passed, however, it has become 
more and more apparent that many of these deficiencies can only*be supplied by 
purchase. 
Treasures of American natural history and ethnology which the Government 
should own are constantly being gathered by professional collectors and sold to the 
museums of Europe, and this has now gone so far that it is in London, for instance, 
rather than in Washington, that the American student must look for some of the 
most important material to enable him to understand the aboriginal races of his own 
country. It is in every respect extremely desirable that means should be provided 
to secure these collections to the American people. 
An increase in the staff is also very desirable, for although many scientific specialists 
continue to give their services to the Museum free of compensation, even this aid does 
not enable the staff to perform properly the current work. Clerks are serving for 
smaller salaries than those in similar positions in the Executive Departments. 
The extent and value of the collections, which now include over 3,000,000 speci- 
mens, makes the responsibility for their care much more onerous than in the past, 
and more watchmen, laborers, and cleaners are urgently required. 
For repairs to buildings, shops, and sheds, National Museum, 
including all necessary labor and material, $8,000. 
Norr.—With the sum appropriated for the current fiscal year (viz: $4,000, ) repairs 
to the buildings have been continued. The Museum building, which is believed to 
be the cheapest of its kind ever built by the Government, is now fifteen years old, 
and the roof and wooden flooring require constant patching. The latter is in 
especially bad condition. - Some of the floors have been replaced by mosaics and by 
granolithic and other artificial stone; and it is the intention, with a sufficient sum 
appropriated for the purpose, to replace the remainder of the old floors with sub- 
stances more durable than wood. To keep the buildings in repair, at least the sum 
estimated for will be required. 
For rent of workshops for the National Museum, $2,000. 
Nore.—This sum is required to continue the rent of suitable shops and storage 
rooms in place of that formerly occupied by the Museum in the so-called Armory 
building. 
For postage stamps and foreign postal cards for the National 
Museum, $500. 
For the continuation of the construction of galleries in the National 
Museum building, said galleries to be constructed under the direction 
of the Superintendent of the Congressional Library, in accordance 
