32 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



carried leaves nothing to be desired in respect either to enduring 

 quality or to interpretation of the architect's conception. 



The subbasement will contain the appliances connected with the 

 heating, lighting, and ventilation of the building, but steam and 

 electric current will be supplied from the central plant of the Mu- 

 seum. In the basement, which will be a well-lighted story, will be 

 located large studios and rooms for the storage of such parts of the 

 collections as are not on exhibition, a capacious lecture hall, an office 

 for the curator, and work and comfort rooms, furnishing, in fact, 

 all necessary conveniences for administration, for serious study, and 

 for popular instruction. 



The main story will be entirely devoted to exhibition purposes and 

 be divided into 19 rooms, each designed for a particular subject or 

 class of objects, reached by "wide corridors. The Whistler collection 

 will occupy five of these rooms, in one of which the decorations of 

 the famous Peacock Room will be installed. The central court, to 

 contain a fountain, will be a special feature of this story, large, 

 arched openings lighting the adjoining corridors and loggias. The 

 entire available floor space of the main and basement stories will 

 aggregate some 55,000 square feet, about equally divided between the 

 two floors. 



It will be recalled that this building is designed to accommodate 

 only the Freer collections and to provide for the study and appre- 

 ciation of their varied contents which supply a vast amount of ma- 

 terial for research work by specialists. As an integral part of this 

 specific gift of art, the most important and valued donation which 

 any individual has ever made, freely and unconditionally, to the 

 Nation, it can not be otherwise employed. Its completion, an event 

 anticipated for the fiscal year 1918-19, while insuring an incalculable 

 gain for the Museum and the public, will not, therefore, satisfy any 

 of the needs, set forth in the last report, in respect to additional 

 space for the national collections of both the applied and the fine 

 arts, as also of American history. The valuable materials in these 

 departments, which have long since been seriously overcrowded, can 

 at present be neither properly utilized nor appropriately brought to 

 the attention of the public. In one branch especially, that of the in- 

 dustrial arts, it is unfortunate that such a condition should now 

 exist, particularly as it is coupled with lack of means for securing an 

 adequate staff of practical experts, as the collections are closely as- 

 sociated with many of the vital problems now confronting the coun- 

 try. With its limited facilities, however, an effort is being made to 

 demonstrate the value of Museum work in time of crisis, and con- 

 tributions made since the close of the year but in time to mention 

 the fact of their publication here, have been recognized as of great 

 national importance by those high in authority. 



