38 Report of the President 



this hall is required for other purposes and the reptiles are 

 to be placed ultimately in the East Wing. 



The completion of the new printing room, which was 

 occupied in February, has added vastly to the efficiency of the 

 printing force, which was seriously handicapped by the 

 cramped and inconvenient quarters in which it was located. 



The Director would call attention to the need for a build- 

 ing in the Southwest Court for workrooms, storage of molds 

 and other material, and to provide a hall for temporary 

 exhibits, such as that made by the Horticultural Society. 

 Such a building would be comparatively inexpensive and 

 would greatly increase the efficiency of the Museum and its 

 ability to meet the frequent calls for exhibition space. 

 The Department of Preparation at present occupies what 

 will be the West Transept, and other workrooms are located 

 in various parts of the building, while molds and casts, the 

 accumulation of years, are placed anywhere and everywhere, 

 often where they are almost inaccessible. 



The retirement of a number of skilled mechanics, necessi- 

 tated by the lapse of the construction fund, has naturally 

 lessened the amount of case, repair and other work, though 

 the output, under the direction of H. F. Beers, Chief of Con- 

 struction, has been satisfactory. It should be noted that, 

 aside from cases, all such work as the reconstruction of the 

 Academy Room, the making over of the room for the prepara- 

 tion of skeletons and the making of new offices and storage 

 rooms, is done by the Museum force. 



Among the items of work were the making of twenty-nine 

 metal-frame cases, including those for the Copper Queen Mine 

 Model and the Alaska Moose; seven wooden cases, fifteen 

 tables, twenty screens and 1,675 storage trays. 



The department of construction has also made and lettered 

 many signs and many more labels used for cases or divisions 

 of the exhibits. 



Important new exhibits, completed during the year, are 



the beautiful Vineyard Haven group of invertebrates, showing 



^ the animals found on the piles of an old wharf, 



the section of the Copper Queen Cave, the reptiles 



of a Lower California desert island, and the model of the 



House-fly in the Department of Public Health. 



