REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 



City in assisting to constitute it a centre of scientific and literal y activ- 

 ity, and in co-operating with other institutions here established. Be- 

 sides contributing to render the Library of Congress tbe first in the 

 United States in the number and value of the books which it contains, 

 it has deposited in the Department of Agriculture 30,000 specimens of 

 plants, and many other objects connected with agriculture. It has also 

 deposited with the Army Medical Museum a large collection of osteo- 

 logical specimens, and a series of skulls for the especial illustration of 

 the craniology of the North American Continent, It has affiliated itself 

 with the Corcoran Art Gallery, and deposited with that admirable insti- 

 tution the specimens of engravings received from its foreign correspond- 

 ents, as well as a number of valuable pictures belonging to its collection. 

 From this sketch of the past and present condition of the Institution, 

 it will, I think, be generally admitted that the trust has been faithfully 

 administered, and that, although changes have been found necessary 

 in the plan adopted by Congress, yet these have been only such as orig- 

 inated from the peculiar nature of the bequest and the difficulty, from 

 a priori conceptions, of adopting the most efficient means of realizing 

 the intentions of the donor. 



The principal event of the year 1876 connected with the Institution 

 is its display of specimens at the International Exposition in Philadel- 

 phia. It was stated in the last annual report that Congress had made 

 an appropriation to enable the Institution to participate with the 

 several Departments of the Government in the Centennial Exhibition. 

 After careful consideration of the subject it was concluded that the part 

 of the Government exhibition under the special charge of the Institu- 

 tion should consist of such articles as would illustrate (1) the character 

 and operations of the Institution itself, (2) the mineral and animal re- 

 sources, (3) the ethnology, and (4) the fishery industries of the United 

 States. The responsibility of collecting and arranging these objects, as 

 well as of representing the Institution at the Centennial Exhibition, was 

 intrusted to Prof. S. F. Baird, assistant secretary of the Institution, 

 who, with a corps of assistants principally engaged for the occasion, 

 discharged the arduous duties assigned him in a highly satisfactory 

 manner. 



The part of the Government display under the auspices of the In- 

 stitution has been pronounced by competent judges one of the most 

 interesting and complete of the kind ever exhibited. The portion which 

 illustrated the character and operations of the Institution embraced full 

 sets of the three classes of its publications, a series of tables showing 

 the extent and importance of the system of international exchange, and a 

 number of large charts exhibiting the results of the system of meteorology 

 founded by the Institution ; that illustrating the mineral wealth of the 

 country contained an extensive series of the ores of tbe precious and ordi- 

 nary metals, with their products, the principal varieties of coal, the clays, 



