34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 



reports, to provide against the spread of fire, though something was done in 

 this direction. A much-needed alteration in the arrangements and conveniences 

 of the photograph gallery was in progress at the end of the year. 



Much work was done in the preparation and construction of furniture for 

 the new building, more especially for the storage rooms and laboratories, in 

 which it is important that fireproof material be employed to the greatest ex- 

 tent possible. There is already in use a large amount of wooden furniture of 

 modern and appropriate design which it would be extravagant to dispense with, 

 and it is therefore being sheathed with sheet steel to conform to the required 

 conditions. 



In regard to new storage furniture, an effort is being made to obtain all 

 metal work, and in view of its recent reduction in cost, due to competition, it 

 now appears feasible to provide for the protection of the immense reserve col- 

 lections on a basis in keeping with the substantial character of the building. 

 There were on hand at the close of the year 2,407 exhibition cases, 3.184 storage 

 cases, and 1,645 pieces of office and laboratory furniture. 



The boiler and electrical plant installed in the new building, embodying the 

 latest improvements, is found to be of sufficient capacity for also heating and 

 lighting the older buildings, and, in the interest of economy, it has been de- 

 cided to make this one plant serve for all. Plans for carrying this arrangement 

 into effect were nearly completed at the close of the year, and it is expected 

 that the connections can be made before autumn. It will be necessary to con- 

 struct a small tunnel for carrying the pipes and wires from the new building 

 to the Smithsonian building, where they will enter the existing conduits. While 

 the new building will be heated by hot water, steam will be carried to the 

 older buildings, the latter being the medium for which their pipes and radiators 

 are now adapted. 



NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 



By a third deed of gift, dated May 10. 1909, Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, 

 Mich., added to his large donation of American and oriental art the following 

 examples acquired since the transfer of the previous year, namely : Four oil 

 paintings and 1 pastel, by Dwight W. Tryon ; 3 oil paintings and 1 pastel, by 

 Thomas W. Dewing; a portrait of ex-President Roosevelt, by J. Gari Melchers; 

 2 oil paintings. 1 water color, 4 drawings and sketches, 1 album of sketches, 

 and 3 etchings and dry points, by James McNeill Whistler; 4 oriental paintings; 

 247 pieces of oriental pottery ; and 25 miscellaneous examples of oriental art. 



Mr. William T. Evans, of New York, also continued to make important addi- 

 tions to his collection of the works of contemporary American artists, which, 

 at the close of the year, numbered 84 oil paintings received in Washington, rep- 

 resenting 58 artists. As the Corcoran Gallery of Art required for its own use 

 the space which has been occupied by the Evans pictures, the transfer of the 

 latter was arranged for in June and carried into effect during the first week 

 of July, 1909. The walls and screens of the picture gallery in the Museum 

 building were entirely given over to this collection, and the new installation 

 displays the paintings to much better advantage than the previous one. This 

 change, however, necessitated the removal of the paintings which have hitherto 

 been hanging in the gallery to temporary quarters in the Smithsonian building. 



It has now become imperative to provide some place where the paintings be- 

 longing to the National Gallery of Art can be segregated, and since the fitting 

 up of the second story of the Smithsonian building has so far failed to secure 

 the approval of Congress, it has been decided to make temporary use of one of 

 the skylighted halls in the new Museum building. Its adaptation to this pur- 

 pose will be taken up early in the new fiscal year. 



