REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 129 



The first of these includes the coins of ancient Greece and. Rome ; the 

 second, the coins of the Roman-German Empire, and of modern 

 Germany; the third, the coins of the United States of America; 

 the fourth, the coins of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, 

 and South America; and the fifth, includes the coins of the mod- 

 ern European countries and their colonies. These groups, which 

 include the most important features of the collection and which 

 have already been permanently installed, are contained in the cases 

 received from the Treasury Department. The numismatic floor 

 cases of regular museum type already mentioned are devoted to 

 series of United States and European commemorative medals. The 

 proposed installation of the series of oriental coins which still re- 

 mains to be accomplished may result in minor changes in connection 

 with the installation of the floor cases, but it is probable that the 

 general arrangement of the large groups already mentioned will not 

 be disturbed. 



The usual precautions have been taken to protect the textiles in 

 the historical collections from the ravages of moth and other de- 

 structive insects. Much time has been devoted to the cleaning of 

 specimens and cases. Many changes were made in the arrangement 

 of the pictorial material belonging to the division. The collection 

 of portraits of officers and men of the American Expeditionary 

 Forces painted by Joseph Cummings Chase, was exhibited for a 

 time above the wall cases in the war collection section of the Natural 

 History Building, containing a collection of United States war flags 

 lent by Gen. John J. Pershing. This collection of portraits has at- 

 tracted much attention on the part of the public and made a very 

 effective showing in this location, in close proximity to relics of the 

 World War. It has, however, since been removed to the war por- 

 trait section of the National Gallery of Art. 



The work of installing the postage-stamp collection has been 

 greatly hampered by a lack of the necessary exhibition frames. The 

 construction of a sufficient number of these, however, to bring this ex- 

 hibit entirely up to date, has already been begun, and it seems that 

 within the next few months it will be possible to accomplish a great 

 improvement in this connection. The cabinet already contains 472 

 frames and the proposed addition will bring the number up to 546. 



Notwithstanding the large amount of work accomplished in im- 

 proving the installation during the fiscal year just past, the present 

 condition of the collections of the division is far from satisfactory. 

 This condition is due to two very important and wide-reaching 

 causes. The first of these is a totally inadequate amount of exhibi- 

 tion space for the collections, and the second consists in the fact 

 that the exhibition space available is scattered in widely separated 



