2 REPOKT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1925 



to the collections then in existence, and provision was made for their 

 increase by the exchange of duplicate specimens, by donations, and 

 by other means. 



The maintenance of the Museum was long ago assumed by Con- 

 gress, the Smithsonian Institution taking upon itself only so much 

 of the necessary responsibility for its administration as is required 

 to coordinate it with its other activities. The Museum as a part of 

 the Smithsonian is an integral part of a broad organization for 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge, for scientific research, for 

 cooperation with departments of the Government, with universities 

 and scientific societies in America, and with all scientific institutions 

 and men abroad who seek interchange of views with men of science 

 in, the United States. 



Since 1846 the only material changes in the scope of the National 

 Museum have been (1) the addition of a department of American 

 history, intended to illustrate, by an appropriate assemblage of ob- 

 jects, important events, the domestic life of the country from the 

 colonial period to the present time, and the lives of distinguished 

 personages, and (2) provision, in 1920, for the separate administra- 

 tion of the National Gallery of Art as a coordinate unit under the 

 Smithsonian Institution. From 1906 to 1920 the gallery was admin- 

 istered as the department of fine arts of the Museum. 



The development of the Museum has been greatest in those sub- 

 jects which the conditions of the past three-quarters of a century 

 have made raost fruitful — the natural history, geology, ethnology, 

 and archeology of the United States, which ha,ve been supplemented 

 by many collections from other countries. Opportunities for ac- 

 quisition in these various directions have been mainly brought about 

 through the activities of the scientific and economic surveys of the 

 Government, many of which have been the direct outgrowths of 

 earlier explorations stimulated or directed by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. The Centennial Exhibition of 18T6 afforded opportuaity 

 for establishing a department of industrial arts, of which the fullest 

 advantage was taken. The historical series has been greatly aug- 

 mented since 1918 by large collections illustrative of the World 

 War, and large additions to exhibits in aircraft and kindred subjects 

 have come in this same period. 



Public interest in the growth and development of the National 

 Museum is reflected in a steady increase of recorded attendance, and 

 in correspondents and requests for information. 



