REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1925 113 



The exhibit, printing for the blind, which had been in storage for 

 several years, was again placed on exhibition during the year, to- 

 gether with many additional specimens. 



The present overcrowded condition of the exhibition and storage 

 space devoted to the collections of the Division of History has ren- 

 dered installation of specimens received during the year and the 

 preservation of specimens already in the possession of the Museum, 

 a serious problem. The collection of art china beqaeathed to the 

 National Gallery of Art by the Rev. Alfred Duane Pell, was tempo- 

 rarily installed on the gallery of the West Hall of the Arts and In- 

 dustries building. The Dickins collection of historical chinaware, 

 formerly shown on the first floor of this hall, was moved to space 

 adjoining the Pell collection. The result has been the concentration 

 on this gallery of a ceramic collection of exceptional importance 

 from the point of view of history and art. While the permanent 

 installation of the Dickins collection on the West Gallery has been 

 the only major change in installation in the space assigned the Divi- 

 son of History, a large amount of time has been deoted to numerous 

 minor changes in the installation scheme both in the Arts and In- 

 dustries and the Natural History Buildings. 



These changes have been undertaken either for the purpose of 

 securing space for collections recently received or to render the gen- 

 eral scheme of installation more in harmonj^ with the general classi- 

 fication of the collections. A constant effort is now being made to 

 unite in single units of space collections relating to each of the 

 various classes of material. This is difficult of accomplishment 

 owing to the limitation both in cases and floor space, but it has at 

 least been approximately attained during the past few years. A 

 second difficulty has been the insistance of contributors to the 

 Museum collections that miscellaneous collections of materials relat- 

 ing to a single individual or family should be kept together regard- 

 less of the heterogeneous character of many such collections. This 

 tendency is being corrected by the refusal to accept collections so 

 conditioned and by uniting with the regular classes materials which 

 are of biographical as well as intrinsic interest. 



Present conditions. — The collections in the Department of Arts 

 and Industries and the Division of History are, as a whole, in as 

 good condition as the limited space permits. The permanent exhibits 

 are slowly being rounded out, gaps being filled, and new information 

 and additional specimens added as opportunity permits. In the 

 Division of Graphic Arts it is desired to have the technical series 

 as complete as possible and the historic series show chronologically 

 examples of the best that have been produced in each period. 



