DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND INDUSTRIES AND DIVISION OF 



HISTORY 



By W. deO. Ravenel, Director of Arts and Industries. 



The collections in arts and industries and American history occupy 

 the Arts and Industries Building, the Aircraft Building, a portion 

 of the Smithsonian Building, and, temporarily, large areas in the 

 Natural History Building. 



Elaborate classifications for the arts and industries subjects have 

 been proposed from time to time, but none of these has been strictly 

 followed in the arrangement of the collections in the National 

 Museum, due mainly to limitations of space, resulting in a more or 

 less disorderly distribution of subjects, the conditions leaving no 

 other choice than that based on convenience. Work is being chiefly 

 centered at present on those subdivisions which are most prominent 

 in relation to current industrial affairs, but there are other subdi- 

 visions with important collections which are not represented by 

 experts on the staff, from lack of funds for their employment. 



The Department of Arts and Industries, as represented by paid 

 members on the scientific staff, at present consists of : The Divisions 

 of Mineral and Mechanical Technology, under Carl W. Mitman, 

 curator, with Paul E. Garber, assistant curator, and F. A. Taylor, 

 aid; the Division of Textiles, Frederick L. Lewton, curator, with 

 Mrs. E. W. Rosson, aid; Section of Wood Technology, William 

 M. N. Watkins, assistant curator; Section of Organic Chemistry, 

 Miss A. M. Doyle, aid; Division of Medicine, under the general 

 supervision of Mr. Lewton, with Dr. Charles Whitebread, assistant 

 curator; Division of Graphic Arts, R. P. Tolman, assistant cura- 

 tor, with R. C. Smith, aid; Section of Photography, Dr. A. J. 

 Olmsted, custodian, and the Loeb Collection of Chemical Types, 

 Maj. O, E. Roberts, jr., curator. 



The Division of History which, when removed from the Depart- 

 ment of Anthropology some years ago, was placed under the admin- 

 istrative assistant to the secretary, is under the immediate charge of 

 T. T. Belote, curator, the other members of the scientific staff being 

 Capt. Charles Carey, assistant curator. Miss Hortense Hoad, aid, 

 and Mrs. C. L. Manning, philatelist. 



The members of the staff have cooperated heartily in making the 

 exhibition halls more attractive and the reserve and study collections 

 more readily accessible to research workers than ever before. 



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