16 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890= 



of the people of the whole country, and to keep especially in mind the 

 needs of those whose time is not devoted to the study of science. 



The spirit in which the work of the Museum is being carried on was 

 voiced in the address of one of its officers before the American Histori- 

 cal Association at its recent meeting in this city, in which it was said: 



(1) That public institutions of this hind are not intended for the few, but 

 for the enlightenment and education of the masses. 



(2) That the public has a right to full participation in the results of the 

 work of the scientific establishments which they are helping to maintain. 



(3) That one of the chief duties of the officers of these institutions is to 

 provide means by which such results may be presented in an attractive as 

 well as an intelligible form. 



No scientific institution is more thoroughly committed to the work of 

 the diffusion of knowledge than is the Smithsonian Institution, and no 

 department of its activity is more capable of usefulness in this direc- 

 tion than is the National Museum. 



The benefits of the Museum are extended not only to the specialists 

 in its laboratories and to the hundreds of thousands of visitors from 

 all parts of the United States who pass its doors each year, but to local 

 institutions and their visitors throughout the country. 



In accordance with long sanctioned usage, the duplicate specimens 

 in the Museum are made up into sets and distributed to schools and 

 museums, accurately named, and of great service, both for museum and 

 class-room use. 



The reports of the Smithsonian Institution will show how many hun- 

 dred thousands of objects have been thus distributed during the past 

 twenty-two years. Every museum in the United States has profited in 

 this way, and by its system of exchange the Museum has, while enrich- 

 ing itself, contributed largely to the stores of every important scientific 

 museum in the world. 



Not only are specimens thus sent out, but aid is rendered in other 

 ways. Within the last few years a large number of local museums in 

 the United States have been supplied with working plans of cases in 

 use in the Museum, and similar sets of plans have been supplied within 

 the past few years to national museums in other countries. 



Not only do the people of the country at large profit by the work of 

 the Smithsonian, as made available to local institutions, but they profit 

 directly, and personally to a very considerable extent. 



The curator of each department in the Museum is expected to be au 

 authority in his own line of work, and the knowledge of the whole staff 

 of experts is thus placed without cost at the service of every citizen. 



