CONTENTS 



Page. 



Subjects v 



Letter of TRANSMITTAL VII 



Table of contents ix 



List of illustrations 



Section I.— Report of the Assistant Secretary, in charge of the National 



Museum. 



A. — General considerations 3 



Early history of the Museum 4 



Progress in the work of the Museum f> 



Necessity for a National Museum 5 



Possibilities of the future 6 



Possibilities of increase and improvement 7 



The necessity for a new Museum building 9 



Appreciation by foreign nations 10 



The relations of the Museum to the Smithsonian Institution 11 



The educational work of the Museum 15 



B. — Organization and scope of the Museum 17 



Principal sources of the collections 17 



C. — Special topics of the year 18 



The proposed statue in memory of Professor Baird 18 



Additional fire-proof building 18 



The American Historical Association 18 



Opening of the National Museum and Smithsonian buildings during 



extra hours 19 



A collection to illustrate the comparative history of religion 19 



The Capron collection 19 



Growth of the collections 20 



Visitors to the Museum 20 



Saturday lectures 20 



Museum appropriations for 1890-'91 20 



The history of engineering 20 



D. — The condition of the collections 21 



Census of the collections '21 



Catalogue entries during the year ending Juue 30, 1890 24 



Development and arrangement of the exhibition series 24 



E. — The museum staff 26 



The scientific staff 26 



List of curators, assistant curators, and aids 27 



The administ rati ve staff 28 



F. — Review of work in the scientific departments 29 



Division of anthropology _ 29 



Division of zoology 35 



Division of botany 40 



Division of geology 42 



IX 



