8 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



study of them, in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the 

 Institution." To the subjects specifically enumerated in the act, the 

 Kegents, under plenary powers granted them, added ethnology and 

 antiquities, inventions, and the arts and manufactures. 



The Smithsonian building was not finished until 1855, although 

 collections from Government expeditions and other sources began to 

 be received and cared for in one of the wings as early as 1850. The 

 transfer of the national collections which had previously been pre- 

 served in the Patent Office building did not take place until 1858, 

 however, owing to delays in preparing for their accommodation. The 

 space provided in the building for museum purposes comprised, be- 

 sides limited storage and laboratory facilities, only a single large hall, 

 but in this the public installation, soon arranged, formed an exception- 

 ally important exhibition for that time. Even at that period, how- 

 ever, these collections were growing rapidly, mainly in the line of 

 natural history, and, spreading beyond their allotted boundaries, they 

 encroached so constantly upon the area originally designed and used 

 for the library, the gallery of art and public lectures, that by 1875 

 the Museum was occupying the entire main part of the building and 

 its western wing, leaving for other purposes of the Institution only 

 the eastern wing and portions of the large towers. 



At this period, 1876, occurred the Centennial Exhibition at Phila- 

 delphia, the first of the large international expositions to be held in 

 this country, and through its direct participation in that great dis- 

 play of the world's products and activities the Museum was afforded 

 the opportunity for establishing an epoch record in the matter of 

 acquisitions. So extensive, in fact, were the contributions made 

 gratuitously to this Government by both foreign and domestic exhib- 

 itors, whose interests had been enlisted in the welfare of the Museum, 

 that they practically filled the so-called Armory building in Wash- 

 ington, which had been secured for their temporary storage. The 

 importance of these additions to the national collections, which 

 related chiefly to the arts and industries of America, Europe and the 

 Orient, was recognized by Congress in 1879 in the provision for the 

 erection of the one story brick structure which stands adjacent to the 

 Smithsonian building. Whatever may be its architectural short- 

 comings and its deficiencies in laboratory and storage accommoda- 

 tions, this building, completed in 1881, furnishes most excellent 

 exhibition halls to the extent of slightly more than two acres. 



In the two buildings thus made available, the older collections were 

 readjusted and the later accessions were installed, but while the floor 

 space had been much more than doubled in extent, its inadequacy to 

 meet the demands was soon apparent. As early as 1883, therefore, the 

 Board of Regents was led to urge upon Congress the erection of a 

 third building, but, although this request was several times renewed, 



