REPORT OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. 55 



judged upon by an examination of the one or two groups, such ai tin* 



materia medica collection, the collection of musical inst ruincnts, and the 

 portion of the costume collection, which are already partly installed. 



The Department of Arts and industries is not yel established upon 



the same footing as the Others in the Museum, nor is it vet quite cer- 

 tain what form it will assume in the future. I Shall therefore not un- 

 dertake to present a formal report upon its operations, hut shall sub- 

 mit in the appendix the reports of the curators of materia medic;!, tex- 

 tile industries, foods and naval architecture, and refer hack to m\ re- 

 port of L883 for a statement of the character of the work which was in 

 progress at the end of that year, and which has been continued during 



the present year, so far as the interruptions connected with exposition 

 work have permitted. 



The installation of the section of fisheries,* under the immediate 

 direction of Mr. K. B. Earll, was actively carried on from January to 

 May, and on the evening of May 14, at 7.30 p. m., the fisheries section 

 of the National Museum was formally opened to the public. This occa- 

 sion was one of special interest, from the fact that the collections in 

 this section were the same that had been exhibited at the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition at London in 1883, together with certain collec- 

 tions which had been acquired in London by gift and exchange. The 

 building was illuminated by electric lights, fitted up for the occasion by 

 the Brush-Swan Electric Light Company. The Director of the Museum 

 held an informal reception in the north main hall. The number of 

 visitors on this occasion was 2,033. 



. This section presents no special report, except in the form of the cat- 

 alogue of the American section at the London Fisheries Exhibition, 

 which is in fact an elaborate report upon everything in the section, and 

 which is referred to elsewhere. At the New Orleans Exposition the 

 Department of Fisheries was represented by about sixty of the large 

 pictures prepared for the Loudon Exhibition, and by about 200 casts of 

 American food-fishes, which also had direct relation to the animal prod- 

 ucts collection just referred to. It was not deemed expedient to dis- 

 mantle the general fishery collections so recently installed, for such a 

 temporary interest as that of these exhibitions. The United States Pish 

 Commission made preparations for a considerable display of lish-culture, 

 and a representative collection of fish-cultural apparatus was sent from 

 the Museum. 



Mr. Hitchcock, the curator of the textile collection, has been prin- 

 cipally occupied in exposition work, in connection with which he un- 

 dertook the preparation of a collection of textile fibers and fabrics. 

 Portions of this collection were exhibited both at Louisville and Cin- 

 cinnati. 



Captain Collins, on behalf of the Department of Naval Architecture, 

 prepared a series of working models illustrating the development of 



* Report U. S. X. M.. \-:'>, pp. 10, 17. 



