REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



the most valuable collections received during the year were obtained 

 through the co-operation of Government officials, and are referred to at 

 length in the report on the Museum for this year. 



Co-operation of Departments and Bureaus of the Government. — The Mu- 

 seum has received, as in past years, many valuable contributions from 

 United State consuls, officers of the Army and the Navy, and through 

 the co-operation of the Departments and Bureaus of the Government. 



Through the courtesy of the Department of State the work of col- 

 lectors in foreign countries has been greatly facilitated. The Secretary 

 of the Treasury has issued several permits for the free entry of Museum 

 material. 



The Secretary of Agriculture has expressed his willingness to co- 

 operate with the National Museum in the matter of making a forestry 

 exhibit, and Dr. B. B, Fernow has been appointed honorary curator of 

 the collection. 



By direction of the Postmaster-General the Superintendent of the 

 Dead Letter Office has been instructed to inform the Museum of the 

 receipt in his office of specimens which might be of value for addition 

 to the collections. 



The Superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey has, as in pre- 

 vious years, aided our work in many ways. 



Photographic exhibit. — A collection intended to show the uses of 

 photography was prepared by Mr. T. W. Smillie, of the National Mu- 

 seum, for exhibition at the Cincinnati Exposition. This collection in- 

 cluded valuable contributions of photographs from Prof. E. C. Picker- 

 ing, of Harvard University, Mr. J. W. Osborne, of Washington, and 

 from several officers connected with the Government service, notably 

 the Light-House Board, the Army Medical Museum, and the proving 

 ground at Annapolis. At the close of the Exposition this collection 

 was returned to the Museum, and is now being prepared, in connection 

 with additional material which has since been received, for permanent 

 exhibition. It is intended that the scope of this exhibit shall be en- 

 larged so as to take the form of a historical collection in which shall 

 be shown examples of every photographic process that has been in- 

 vented, together with the appliances used, beginning with the photo- 

 graph of the solar spectrum as made by Sheele in 1777. Considerable 

 material has been already gathered which will be incorporated in this 

 collection. The first camera made in the United States has been ac- 

 quired by purchase. A stereoscope containing daguerreotypes and 

 transparencies by the old albumen process on glass has been presented 

 by Mrs. E. J. Stone. The Scoville Manufacturing Company of New 

 York has presented a series of cameras showing the latest improve- 

 ments, and from the Eastman Dry Plate Company, of Bochester, N. Y., 



