16 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



scripts offered for publication by the Institution or its branches. 

 During the past year 13 meetings were held, at which 68 manuscripts 

 were considered and acted upon. The membership of the commit- 

 tee is as follows: Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, head curator of biology. 

 National Museum, chairman; Mr. N. Hollister, superintendent of 

 the National Zoological Park; Mr. A. Howard Clark, editor of the 

 Institution, secretary of the committee ; Dr. George P. Merrill, head 

 curator of geology, National Museum; and Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, 

 chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, who succeeded Mr. F. W. 

 Hodge, resigned. 



LIBRARY. 



The library of the Smithsonian Institution is divided into (1) the 

 main library, consisting chiefly of journals and transactions of learned 

 societies and institutions throughout the world, which are in the cus- 

 tody of the Library of Congress and administered as the Smithsonian 

 deposit; (2) the National Museum library; (3) the library of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology; (4) the National Zoological Park 

 library; (5) the library of the Astrophysical Observatory; and (6) 

 the office reference library. Some of these are subdivided into sev- 

 eral sectional libraries. 



The report of the assistant librarian in the appendix presents de- 

 tails of accessions. Mention should here be made of one exceptional 

 and important addition to the Museum library, consisting of a large 

 number of botanical and horticultural publications brought together 

 at Biltmore, N. C, by the late Mr. George W. Vanderbilt and pre- 

 sented by Mrs. Vanderbilt. 



NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The detailed account of the operations of the National Museum is 

 recorded in an appendix to this report by Mr. Eavanel, the adminis- 

 trative assistant who had chiefly conducted the affairs for several 

 months during the illness of Assistant Secretary Eathbun, whose 

 death occurred shortly after the close of the fiscal year. It is there- 

 fore unnecessary here to do more than to review some of the prin- 

 cipal activities of the Museum and to refer to the appendix for fur- 

 ther information. 



The exhibits are now housed in three buildings: (1) the arts and 

 industries collection in what is known as the old Museum building, 

 (2) the natural history collections and the National Gallery of Art in 

 the large new building, and (3) the graphic arts and National Her- 

 barium in the original Smithsonian building. 



During the year 69,286 square feet of room in the Natural History 

 Building were turned over to the Secretary of the Treasury for use 

 of about 3,000 clerks of the War Risk Insurance Bureau. I may 



