10 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



l^riation for its purchase, simply because of unwillinoness to ask for 

 that which might not be granted. Minerals, having a money value, 

 can readily be sold, and are not very often given to the Museum, and 

 the poverty of its mineralogical collection iri by no means creditable to 

 the nation. 



The«Museum receives many valuable gifts from Government officials 

 abroad, especially from those in the consular and diplomatic service, 

 and in the Navy. 



If the actual cost of gathering specimens could be paid, the time and 

 experience of these men would gladly be given gratuitously. In this 

 way, by the expenditure of a few thousands each year, extensive and 

 important additions might be made to the national collections. 



THE NECESSITY FOR A NEW MUSEUM BUILDING. 



The IS'ational Museum is now approaching an important crisis in its 

 history. Its future will depend upon the action of Congress in granting 

 it an additional building, for without more room its growth can not but 

 be in large degree arrested. 



The necessity for additional room is constantly increasing, and sev- 

 eral of the collections, to wit, transportation and engineering, fishes, 

 reptiles, birds' eggs, mollusks, insects, marine invertebrates, vertebrate 

 and invertebrate fossils, fossil and recent plants, are in some instances 

 wholly unprovided for, and in others only in a very inadequate degree. 



In the main hall of the Smithsonian building is still exhibited the 

 collection of birds. A few cases containing birds' eggs and shells have 

 recently been arranged along the center of this hall. 



There are at the present time nineteen departments in the E"ational 

 Museum, eleven of which have no space assigned to them in the Museum 

 building, solely on account of its crowded condition. The collection 

 of prehistoric anthropological objects remains installed on the second 

 floor of the Smithsonian building. The collections of the remaining ten 

 departments can not be exhibited or even properly arranged and classi- 

 fied without more room. These collections are at present stored in tlie 

 attics and basements of the Smithsonian and Armory buildings, and are 

 inaccessible for study and for the other purposes for which they were 

 (Obtained. The specimens comprising these collections are not simply 

 •objects of natural history, possessing an abstract interest to the stu- 

 dent, but represent the application of natural objects to the industries, 

 :and, as such, are of great importance. There are several collections of 

 'Ores, minerals, building stones, and of objects representing various arts 

 :and industries, which are of very great value, since they furnish to the 

 American manufacturer and designer information of inestimable im- 

 portance. 



The increase in the national collections during the last six years may 

 perhaps be best described by the statement that in 188-J the total 

 number of specimens recorded in the Museum was about 183,000; while 

 in 1887 the records indicated the possession of more than 2,900,000 



