REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



A complete set of the publications of the Institution has been sent 

 to Pembroke College, Oxford, where Smithson received his education. 



Portrait of Secretary Baird. — The Board having authorized a portrait 

 of Professor Baird, one has been painted by Mr. Bobert Gordon Hardie 

 and placed in the Begents' room of the Institution. 



The Hamilton fund. — The original amount of $1,000, the bequest of 

 Mr. James Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, received by the Institution in 

 1874, has been increased during the year to $2,000 by the addition of 

 accumulated interest, under authority given by the Begents in their 

 meeting of January 23, 1895. 



American Historical Association. — The annual report of the American 

 Historical Association for the year 1894 has been transmitted to Con- 

 gress through the Secretary of the Institution, in accordance with the 

 act of incorporation of the association. These reports are Congressional 

 documents and the Institution has no control of their distribution. 



American Medical Association. — A large collection of medical books, 

 which had for many years been in the care of the Institution as the 

 property of the American Medical Association, has been transferred 

 by the association to the Newberry Library in Chicago. 



THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



In my last annual statement I pointed out three conditions which 

 are operating to seriously retard the growth of the National Museum : 

 First, the lack of space for the installation of objects which should be 

 placed on exhibition ; second, the unsymmetrical growth of the collec- 

 tions; and third, the fact that the storage of collections in the wooden 

 sheds south of the Smithsonian building, as well as in the basement of 

 the building itself, is most undesirable and dangerous. The sum of $900, 

 allowed for 1896, will be necessarily expended in the rental of shop 

 and storage room in place of the ''Armory building." The actually 

 dangerous wooden sheds must therefore remain occupied until a sum 

 of money is provided which will enable me to discontinue their use 

 altogether by renting other quarters, removed entirely from proximity 

 to the Smithsonian building. 



The problem of even providing shelter of any kind for the vast 

 amount of material daily received from persons interested in the growth 

 and work of the Museum, still remains unsolved. The Institution is 

 placed in an embarrassing position. It has been designated by law as 

 the only depository of collections offered to, or made under the auspices 

 of, the Government, and can not, under the law, refuse to receive them. 

 The fact remains, however, that when accepted, there is no suitable 

 place in which to store them, and no space in the Museum building to 

 exhibit such of the objects as should properly be shown to the public. 

 As I have already pointed out, there is probably no museum in the 

 world in which so small a proportion of the objects worthy of exhibition 

 is visible to the public, or in which the objects exhibited are crowded 



