8 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 



Through cooperation of national trade associations, large series of 

 industrial specimens were added illustrating every branch of rubber 

 manufacture, the manufacture of leather and shoes, and the prepa- 

 ration and dyeing of seal, muskrafc, and rabbit skins. New chemical 

 compounds to enrich the Loeb collection of chemical types came from 

 Government bureaus and from private chemists. Other exhibits 

 donated show the manufacture and use of new material from the 

 field of industrial chemistry and include synthetic plastics and hot- 

 molded and cold-molded compositions having high dielectric proper- 

 ties. Further chemical accessions include glues, coal-tar dyes, and 

 artificial silk. The textile collections were augmented by fibers, silk 

 and cotton dress andMrapery fabrics, hand-woven textiles, hand looms, 

 and a commercial braiding machine. To the collections showing the 

 importance of wood and the industries based thereon, were added 

 products of the hardwood distillation industry, veneered doors, 

 sporting goods made of wood, and paper-pulp products. The col- 

 lections in the division of medicine were enlarged by 25 models 

 showing advances in sanitary science, specimens of materia medica, 

 and objects associated with the history of medicine in America. 



In the graphic arts collection no entirely complete new exhibit 

 was received, but important additions to existing exhibits were made, 

 especially of letterpress printing and of etching. The most impor- 

 tant, doubtless, was Miss Beatrice S. Levy's gift of three aquatint 

 plates for her color print, White House by the Sea, which added a 

 new method to the technical series. Another especially desirable ad- 

 dition was probably the first motion-picture camera ever made, one 

 invented by Wallace Goold Levison in 1887. 



An important innovation this year was the receipt of material 

 for a period room. Mrs. Gertrude D. Hitter, who is interested in 

 the preservation of the atmosphere of the early settlers of our coun- 

 try, contributed an American colonial room, including not only the 

 furniture and furnishings but even the pine woodwork brought in 

 its entirety from an old New England home. This is the beginning, 

 it is expected, of Mrs. Hitter's plan for the assembling of the furnish- 

 ings of an entire colonial home, to be displayed in a house of colonial 

 style to be erected for the purpose in proximity to the present 

 Museum buildings. In the meantime this unit has been provided 

 for in the Natural History Building — in one of the foyer rooms, 

 which has been entirely transformed. It is the first period room to 

 be permanently installed in the Museum and is attracting favorable 

 notice. 



The collection of costumes of the ladies of the White House, which 

 has proved so attractive, was increased this year by an evening gown 

 worn in the White House by Mrs. Warren G. Harding and the dress 



