80 CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



hibition lasting but sis months have amounted to nearly $000,000. The 

 donations from our own States and individuals, tending to fill up 

 some of the gaps and complete the American display, which an insuf- 

 ficient appropriation interfered with, and those from foreign nations 

 which have been given to the United States, can hardly be considered 

 as overvalued at $400,000, and we therefore have an aggregate of prop- 

 erty, in value, of at least a million of dollars to provide for. 



Future increase of collections. — Promises have been made by most o 

 the foreign commissions to complete any portion, illustrating the natural 

 products and industries of their respective countries whenever the 

 arrangement of the collection shows the deficiencies. 



Action of the President in regard to transfer. — In view of the magnitude 

 of the collections thus acquired by the United States, and the inad- 

 equacy of any present provision for their transfer to Washington, and 

 their arrangement here, as also in view of the urgency of the appeal 

 of the National Academy of Sciences, the President, under date of 

 November 17, 1876, issued an order forbidding the removal of the articles 

 in the Government building until some arrangement could be made 

 in regard to them. This order was subsequently modified by allowing 

 such objects as were required for the use of the Government in Wash- 

 ington or elsewhere, to be transferred, as also such as were liable to 

 decay or injury by remaining in a building exposed to cold and damp- 

 ness. The greater part of these articles are now stored in the Govern- 

 ment building at Philadelphia, waiting some action on the part of Con- 

 gress. 



Demolition of Government Centennial building soon required. — As the 

 contract made by the park commission with the Centennial Commis- 

 sion requires the removal of all the buildings within 60 days of the close 

 of the exhibit, it is necessary to take speedy action on this subject -, 

 and if Congress does not see fit to erect a building at the present time 

 for the proper display of the collections, measures must at any rate be 

 authorized for their removal to Washington, and their storage in some 

 safe place, as the appropriations made to the Government board did not 

 contemplate these foreign and domestic donations in their enormous 

 aggregate, and are entirely inadequate to handling them. The articles of 

 this character, in charge of the Smithsonian Institution alone, will, it is 

 stated, fill fifty freight-cars to their utmost capacity, in addition to the 

 collections prepared by the Institution directly for the exhibition, and 

 moved from Washington to Philadelphia in the spring of 1876. 



As the Government building embraced an area of about 100,000 

 square feet, it is evident that one of less magnitude would not suffice 

 for the rerjroduction of an exhibit of the original and acquired material. 



