10 BRITISH MUSEUM (nATUEAL HISTORY) 



GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM 

 (NATURAL HISTORY) 



The total number of visitors to the Natural History Museum 

 during 1930 was 506,407 as compared with 541,198 in 1929. The 

 visitors on Sunday afternoons numbered 92,049 as against 88,386 ; 

 and the total number of visitors attending the tours of the official 

 Guide -Lecturer during the year was 14,468, being an increase of 1,496 

 on the figures for 1929. 



Under the British Museum Act, which was passed at the end of 

 July, 1930, and came into force on 1 January, 1931, the responsibility 

 for the care and custody of the collections in the Natural History 

 Museum was transferred from the Director and Principal Librarian 

 to the Director of the Natural History Departments. 



Following the recommendation of the Royal Commission on National 

 Museums and Galleries, the Treasury agreed to the increase over a 

 period of years of the scientific staff of the Museum by fifteen and of the 

 subordinate staff by twenty-four. 



Museum Building 



The New Spirit Building extension, erected for the Department of 

 Entomology at the expense of the Empire Marketing Board, was 

 completed during the year and formally opened on 5 December by 

 the Archbishop of Canterbury. The collections of all orders of insects, 

 except Diptera and Lepidoptera, were transferred to the new accom- 

 modation thus supphed. The congestion and lack of space which have 

 seriously hampered the work of the Department for so many years are 

 at an end. Provision has been made in the new building for experi- 

 mental work on insect pests. 



Considerable progress has been made with the erection of the New 

 Whale Room, and it is anticipated that it will be finished by the 

 autumn of 1931. 



The additional storey of studies over the eastern half of the north 

 colonnade was completed : one of these studies was allotted to the 

 General Library, and the remainder to the Department of Geology. 



Iron galleries were constructed in two of the basement rooms in the 

 Department of Geology to provide more space for the storage of speci- 

 mens, and a lift for the transport of large specimens was provided 

 between the basement and the ground floor in that Department. 



The installation of the lift given by the late Mr. M. R. Oldfield 

 Thomas, F.R.S., was completed and was opened by Mr. G. Lansbury, 

 First Commissioner of Works, on 6 June. 



Exhibition Galleries 



The exhibited series of Chiroptera, Insectivora, rodents, lemurs, and 

 New World monkeys were entirely re-arranged, many old specimens 

 being eliminated and fresh material placed on exhibition. The fine 

 pair of cow elephant tusks, recently received on loan from the 

 Governor of Uganda, His Excellency Sir William Gowers, K.C.M.G., 

 was placed on exhibition in the East Corridor. A further series of 

 enlarged photographs of East African big game, taken by Colonel 



