32 ANNUAL. KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 



ings, photographs, maps, books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and other 

 objects of the same character relating to the progress of the war. 



As the natural history building Avas closed and every available 

 foot of space in it assigned to the Treasury Department, it became 

 necessary to install the material received during the year for the 

 war collections in the arts and industries building, and to place the 

 large and heavy objects in the open to the west of this building. At 

 the close of the year material for the war collections was coming in 

 steadily, and it had become necessary also to assign to this subject 

 all of the central portion of the ground story and the rotunda of the 

 natural history building — space usuallj^ reserved for special exhi- 

 bitions. 



The Museum is particularly fortunate in having a very excellent 

 series of objects showing the development of the airplane, beginning 

 with the Langley models, wliich have been in its possession for a^ 

 number of years, and the first Government-owned aeroplane of the 

 world purchased by the United States from Wright Brothers in 1909. 

 Through the director of military aeronautics, Bureau of Aircraft 

 Production, two types of planes used by the French at the front in 

 1917 were received during the past year, and a Curtiss training plane, 

 such as used at all the training fields in the United States, and the 

 first battle plane constructed in this country for the United States 

 Govermnent — the DH-4, made by the Dayton- Wright Airplane Co. 

 in 1917. This plane has flown over 100,000 miles and been in the air 

 over 1,000 hours. 



Through arrangement with the Army and Navy the Museum is 

 planning to exhibit examples of every plane, engine, radio apparatus^ 

 and other accessory in production in the United States at the time 

 of the armistice, and has secured for this exhibit the temporary 

 metal structure erected on the Smithsonian grounds in 1917 by the 

 War Department for the use of the Air Service. 



hnmediate needs of the Museum. — As pointed out in the report of 

 three years ago, the pressing needs of the Museum are those for addi- 

 tional space for the accommodation of collections and for increase 

 in the scientific and technical staff. It is clearly manifest that these 

 needs must be met if the institution, with its numerous departments, 

 is to keep reasonable pace with the development of the country as 

 a whole. The space congestion especially becomes more pronounced 

 and embarrassing with each passing day. 



The natural history collections and the laboratories connected 

 therewith require for their reasonable accommodation and adminis- 

 tration the entire natural historj^ building, a structure erected 

 especially for this particular purpose. To-day, however, large areas 

 in the building are assigned — and that from necessity — to the rap- 



