REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 



the best skill of the museum preparator and taxidermist. During 

 the year this branch of the work was pressed to the fullest extent pos- 

 sible, and excellent progress was made. 



Of the total floor area of about 465,000 square feet furnished by the 

 new building, the amount of space dedicated to the public, including 

 the floors and galleries of the south pavilion and rotunda, is slightly 

 in excess of 220,000 square feet. The permanent exhibitions now 

 planned are limited to the first and second stories of the wings and 

 ranges, which they will completely occupy and which contain about 

 186,000 square feet. Of this space about three-fourths has been 

 opened to the public, although it should be explained that the installa- 

 tions are still. to a large extent provisional and subject to revision, a 

 work that is steadily going on. The end of another year, however, 

 should see all of the exhibition halls opened and in good though not 

 finished condition. 



The exhibitions to which the public had gained access by the close 

 of the year comprised, besides the picture gallery in the middle hall, 

 ethnology, historic archeology, systematic and applied geology, 

 mineralogy, paleontology, the birds and fishes, small sections of the 

 mammals and invertebrates, a synoptic series of biology, and certain 

 special zoological collections illustrating anatomy and development, 

 albinism, melanism, hybridism, the domestic animals, and the local 

 fauna. The principal branches that remained to be opened up were 

 the mammals, reptiles, marine invertebrates, and prehistoric 

 archeology. 



The removal of the natural history collections from the older 

 buildings furnishes the opportunity for the more complete organiza- 

 tion of the department of the arts and industries as contemplated 

 in the original plan of the Board of Regents. Certain subjects 

 belonging to it have for a long time been illustrated to the extent 

 permitted by the crowded condition of the exhibition halls, among 

 them being land and water transportation, firearms, electrical inven- 

 tions, measuring devices, many kinds of machinery, the graphic arts, 

 and ceramics. There are several others, however, equally important 

 and interesting, of which the Museum has many and valuable illus- 

 trations. The material, obtained from various sources, but mainly 

 from the great international expositions, has, from lack of room, 

 been necessarily kept in storage, though before the crowding of the 

 older buildings began some parts of it were exhibited. The space 

 that has been released will afford accommodations for the installa- 

 tion of this material, so far as it has not deteriorated, and for such 

 additions as will be needed to round out the exhibits of the several 

 subjects in at least a modest way. With this accomplished, the 

 Museum will be confronted with the problem of the further develop- 



