24 KEPOKT OF THE SECEETAKY. 



inuft^eiiin besides aiding students served to instruct and entertain the 

 13ublic'. The great groAvth of the Museum dates from the close of 

 the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, since which time collections have 

 been actively gathered and exhibited because of their educational 

 value. Neither purpose has been lost sight of because of the other, 

 and the instruction of the public has been secured not only by digni- 

 fied exhibition of interesting objects, but by adding to them series of 

 instructive labels based upon the maxim that a good educational 

 museum consists in a series of carefully prepared labels with well 

 selected specimens attached. With these tAvo great purposes in mind 

 the Museum has now succeeded in bringhig together catalogued 

 objects amounting to over 0,000,000 in number, the exhibition series 

 being so installed that the individual objects or groups would not 

 stand as inert curiosities by themselves, but are arranged in such 

 manner as to show their relation either to the orderly dcA^elopment 

 of nature or to the varied manifestations of human thought and 

 activity. 



It can not but be realized that the Museum's main attainment from 

 this point of view consists not only of the collections or of the build- 

 ing which houses them, but to an ever increasing degree in the posses- 

 sion of the experts who have the custody of these collections and the 

 knowledge to classify them and to make them available for public 

 instruction. I regTet to say that the enormous growth of the col- 

 lections in the Museum has not been accompanied by any proportion- 

 ate increase in its administrative and scientific staff. The greatest 

 efficiency can hardly make np for the numerical inability to cope with 

 the increasing work, and it becomes each year more painfully appar- 

 ent that the personnel of the establishment must be materially aug- 

 mented if the present standards are to be maintained. 



Despite this paucity of workers and the congested halls, the past year 

 has been as successful as any in the history of the National Museum. 

 During this time more additions to its collections have been recorded 

 than in any previous year save the period immediately following 

 the Centennial Exhibition of 1876. From the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition alone over thirty carloads were received, including many 

 A'aluable ethnological and technological exhibits. Besides this there 

 were the usual accessions from the Government surveys and from do- 

 nations and exchanges. Altogether, nearly 250,000 specimens have 

 been entered during the year, while a mass of material is yet to be 

 sorted out. these recent additions bringing the total number of speci- 

 mens now preserved in the Museum collections well over 6,000,000. 



That only a very small fraction of these specimens can ever be on 

 public exhibition is evident, yet those stored away are by no means 

 the least important. The scientific staff is constantly engaged in re- 



