102 ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The Exhibition was opened to the public in June. The 

 Exhibition has attracted considerable notice not only in this 

 country but also in the United States, and it has been deter- 

 mined to keep it open for some time longer — probably until the 

 end of the year (1912). 



South Kensington Site. 



This question, to which reference was made in the last 

 Annual Return, has given the Trustees considerable anxiety, 

 since the original proposal in connection with the use of the 

 land on the north of the Natural History Museum threatened 

 seriously to affect the interests of the Museum in the future. 

 The views of the Trustees on the subject are fully set out ia 

 the White Paper " Copy of Correspondence between the First 

 " Commissioner of Works and the Trustees of the British 

 " Museum on the subject of the Provision of a Site for a New 

 " Science Museum at South Kensington" (Cd. 5650). 



As a result of further correspondence and of several con- 

 ferences between representatives of the Departments concerned, 

 a settlement has been arrived at, under the terms of which the 

 boundary of the Natural History Museum as adjusted in 1899 

 has been secured to the Trustees. By the settlement the demo- 

 lition of the existing Spirit Building has been avoided, and 

 accommodation for the Geological Survey and the collections 

 at present in Jermyn Street will be provided on ground south 

 of the boundary line of 1899. The buildings for the Survey 

 offices and the collections (while communicating with the 

 Science Museum) will be in connection with and form a part 

 structurally of the eastward extension of the Natural History 

 Museum, and will be so arranged as to fit that extension when 

 it is eventually built. A Lecture Theatre, which will be under 

 the control of the Trustees but available for joint use by both 

 Museums, forms part of the scheme. 



The Trustees in assenting to provide this accommodation 

 for the Geological Survey collections believe that the arrange- 

 ment will be of great advantage to students and others 

 interested, since these collections will thus be continuous with 

 the part of the Natural History Museum in which are arranged 

 the Systematic Palseontological and Mineralogical collections. 



Spirit Building. 



The question of the South Kensington site was closely 

 connected with the problem of finding room for an extension of 

 the building containing the spirit collections. Reference has 

 in previous years been made to the over-crowded state of the 

 Spirit House, and the provision of additional accommodation 

 has become an urgent matter. The specimens form a most 

 important section of the Natural History Museum, and their 

 increase in number may be expected to be more rapid in the 

 future than it has been in the past, great as this has been. 



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