REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25 



Works on natural history, the arts and industries, and other sub- 

 jects pertaining to the several departments of the National Museum 

 are installed in the new and older Museum buildings. This library 

 now numbers 43,609 volumes, 73,761 pamphlets and unbound papers, 

 and 124 manuscripts. 



In the assistant librarian's review of the year's operations in ap- 

 pendix 6 of this report details will be found as to the work of the 

 library in its several subdivisions. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES. 



The Institution is frequently invited to send representatives to 

 scientific congresses in the United States and abroad, but as funds 

 are not available for the expenses of delegates, invitations can be 

 accepted only in a few instances when collaborators of the Institution 

 or members of the scientific staff are willing to attend at their own 

 expense. 



Your secretary, as a member of the Twelfth International Congress 

 of Geology, would have attended the meeting in Toronto August 7 

 to 14, 1913, but he was unable to make arrangements to leave his 

 field work in the Canadian Eockies at that time. He had an oppor- 

 tunity to address the members of the congress during their visit to 

 Field, British Columbia. Dr. George P. Merrill, head curator of 

 geology in the United States National Museum, however, attended 

 the congress as representative of the Smithsonian Institution and the 

 Museum. 



Plans had been perfected at the close of the fiscal year for hold- 

 ing the Nineteenth International Congress of Americanists in Wash- 

 ington during the month of September, 1914. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL BUILDING. 



In my last report reference was made to the act of Congress 

 approved by the President March 4, 1913, authorizing the George 

 Washington Memorial Association to erect a memorial building on 

 Armory Square facing the Mall, which extends from the Capitol to 

 the Washington Monument. The control and administration of the 

 building, when erected, is in the Board of Eegents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. Plans for the building were selected in May, 



1914, from designs submitted by 13 competing architects, and were 

 subsequently approved by the National Commission of Fine Arts. 



The drawings depict a colonial building with pillared front and 

 square ground plan. The main feature is an auditorium to seat 6,000 

 people, which is arranged in the form of an ellipse, with the stage 

 at one end and a deep balcony encircling the whole. 



The work of construction must be begun before the 4th of March, 



1915, or the authorization by Congress for the use of the above site 



