30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 



Kensington), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, 

 the Museum of Practical Geology, Bethnal Green Museum, the Wal- 

 lace Collection, the several national galleries of art, and others. In 

 Washington, on the contrary and very fortunately, the entire mu- 

 seum scheme has, by law. been essentially combined under one ad- 

 ministration, which not only insures greater economy in manage- 

 ment, but permits of a more logical classification and arrangement^ 

 the elimination of duplication, and a consequent reduction in the 

 relative amount of space required. 



The national collections of the United States are not yet to be com- 

 pared as a whole with those of certain European countries, though in 

 natural history they are probably not surpassed there. In respect to 

 the fine arts, the Freer collection comprises the most important rep- 

 resentatioii of oriental art in the world. However, in the fine arts 

 generally and in the useful or industrial arts the National Museum 

 has a great task before it, possible of accomplishment only when 

 requisite facilities are supj^lied. 



Steps were taken during the year looking to the more definite 

 organization of the depaitnient of arts and industries. Elaborate 

 classifications have been proposed from time to time, but none of 

 these have been strictly followed in the arrangement of the collec- 

 tions, due mainlj^ to the limitation of space. Work is being chiefly 

 centered at present on those subdivisions which are most prominent 

 in relation to current industrial affairs, but there are other subdivi- 

 sions with important collections which are not represented by experts 

 on the staff on account of lack of funds for their employment. As at 

 present constituted the Department of Arts and Industries may be 

 considered to consist of the Division of Mineral Technology, the 

 Division of Textiles, the Section of Wood Technology, the Section of 

 Foods, the Division of Medicine, and the Division of Mechanical 

 Technology. 



War activities. — In the last leport the action of the Board of 

 Regents of the Institution at the request of the President of the 

 United States in closing the natural historj^ Ijuilding to the public on 

 July 16, 1918, was noted, enabling the Museum to furnish the Bureau 

 of War Risk Insurance of the Treasury Department with 138,600 

 square feet of space for office purposes on the ground and the two 

 exhibition floors. This was done with the understanding that the 

 Museum would be vacated upon the completion of the building then 

 being erected for the bureau at the corner of Vermont Avenue and 

 H Street, and that the Museum space would be turned back to the 

 Museum authorities in the same condition in which it was received 

 by the bureau. Late in March the bureau moved to its own struc- 

 ture, but its funds were then so depleted that it was unable to carry 



