42 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



the west hall. The Abbott cases in the gallery of the same hall were rearranged, 

 and the entire Philippine collection, as far as it has been prepared for exhibi- 

 tion, was placed in the gallery of the Pueblo court. The objects of Jewish 

 religious ceremonial from Mr. Benguiat were incorporated in the collection 

 previously received from him. A special case of Egyptian antiquities and a 

 series of Egyptian (Coptic) textiles were arranged, and additions were made 

 to the Bible collection. In the divisions of technology and history places were 

 found for nearly all of the objects obtained. The interesting series of portraits 

 of distinguished physicians, preiDared for the Jamestown Exposition, was in- 

 stalled with the collection of medicine, and the loan collection of Miss Scidmore, 

 on the ceramic gallery. 



The princiiml additions to the exhibition series of the department of biology 

 consisted of a skeleton of Baird's beaked whale, a rare species, and of a group 

 of polar bears obtained on the Ziegler arctic expedition and presented by Mrs. 

 Ziegler. The exhibit of insects, which has been in preparation for some time, 

 was completed to the extent permitted by the space available. In the exhibi- 

 tion halls of the department of geology comparatively few additions or changes 

 were made. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Duplicate specimens, mostly biological and geological, separated from the col- 

 lections during the progress of investigations were disposed of to the number of 

 about 26,000. About 14,000 of these were used in making exchanges with 

 establishments and individuals both at home and abroad, whereby the collec- 

 tions of the museum received new material to approximately the same extent. 

 The other 12,000 specimens were utilized in the customary way to advance the 

 interests of teaching, having been distributed in carefully labeled and classified 

 sets to educational establishments throughout the countrj'. Besides the above, 

 over 9,000 specimens were sent to specialists for study, partly for the publica- 

 tions of the museum and partly to aid in work carried on under other auspices. 



The total number of visitors to the public halls was about 300,000, a daily 

 average of over 960 persons. This is to be regarded as a large attendance, con- 

 sidering that the buildings are opened only on week days and during official 

 hours. That the National Museum is not serving its full purpose in this direc- 

 tion, however, is evidenced by the experiences of museums in other large cities, 

 where evening and Sunday opening insures a very much greater attendance by 

 extending to the working people the opportunity of examining the collections. 



The publications of the year comprised the annual report for 1907, volumes 

 32 and 33, and part of volume 34 of the proceedings, five volumes of bulletins, 

 and several papers belonging to the contributions from the national herbarium, 

 all of which, except the annual or administrative report, are descriptive of 

 museum collections. 



The library of the museum contains 33,564 volumes, 52,112 unbound papers, 

 and a number of manuscripts, the additions during the year having consisted 

 of 3,257 books, 4,470 pamphlets, and 247 parts of volumes. This library is a 

 purely technical one, confined to that class of publications bearing upon the 

 subjects covered by the museum collections, but its means of increment are so 

 limited as to make it very difficult to keep up those studies which are essential 

 to the classification of the collections. The appropriation for the purchase of 

 books is entirely inadequate, and, in fact, the principal increase is effected 

 through exchanges and gifts. 



During the summer of 1907 the museum, in conjunction with the Institution, 

 participated in the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and the International 

 Maritime Exposition at Bordeaux, France, the arrangements for which were 



