BRITISH MUSEUM (nATUBAL HISTORY) 9 



GENERAL PROGRESS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM 

 (NATURAL HISTORY) 



The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the 

 Natural History Museum was held on 29 and 30 September. The dele- 

 gates were welcomed in the Reptile Gallery on the afternoon of 

 29 September, and a reception was given by His Majesty's Government 

 at the Museum the same evening, the guests being received by the 

 Prime Minister and Miss Ishbel Mac Donald. On 30 September, visits 

 were paid to the Tower of London and Lambeth Palace, and the 

 delegates were invited to the reception given at the Guildhall to the 

 members of the British Association by the Lord Mayor and Corporation 

 of the City of London. 



The total number of visitors to the Natural History Museum during 

 1931 was 537,170 as compared with 506,407 in 1930. The visitors on 

 Sunday afternoons numbered 99,617 as against 92,049 last year. The 

 total number of visitors attending the tours of the Official Guide - 

 Lecturer during 1931 was 12,533, being a decrease of 1,935 on the 

 figure for 1930. 



On 1 April the Director became the Accounting Officer for the sepa- 

 rate Vote for the British Museum (Natural History) which came into 

 effect on that date. 



In view of the need for stringent economy, six Assistant Keeperships 

 out of eight new scientific posts which had been approved by the 

 Treasury for 1931 were left unfilled. 



Exhibition Galleries. 



In conjunction with a rearrangement of the Geological exhibition 

 galleries the reproductions of skeletons of the extinct reptiles Diplo- 

 docus, Triceratops, and Iguanodon were removed from the recent 

 Reptile Gallery to the Fossil Reptile Gallery. 



The structural work on the new Whale Gallery was finished by the 

 end of September, and the internal fitting is now almost complete. 

 Funds not being at present available for the somewhat expensive work 

 of installing whale models and skeletons, a temporary exhibition of 

 British Empire big game is being prepared in the new gallery. 



Several additions were made to the Upper Mammal Gallery. A 

 mounted specimen of the gerenuk, and the specimen of the Congo race 

 of Lord Derby's eland, presented by Sir Charles Markham, were placed 

 in a special case outside the Lower Mammal Gallery. The New World 

 monkeys were rearranged. Continued progress was made with the 

 rearrangement of the Bird Gallery, especially among the British 

 series. The reorganization of the Fish Gallery was continued, and the 

 cases illustrating the classification of fishes, food-fishes, and fishery 

 investigations were completed. 



In the Entomological Department the rearrangement of the Insect 

 Gallery was continued ; and a new exhibit illustrating the importance 

 of insects to man was placed in the Central Hall. 



A new exhibit to illustrate the early history of palaeontology was 

 arranged in the Department of Geology, and a series to illustrate the 

 evolution of the horse, of Gault ammonites, and of Chalk sea-urchins, 

 was placed in a wall-case in the Fossil Mammal Gallery. 



