REPORT UPON THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S. 

 NATIONAL MUSEUM DURING THE HALF YEAR ENDING JUNE 



30, 1885. 



A.— GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



The report now presented embraces the period between January 1 

 and June 30, 1885. This change is made in accordance with the vote 

 of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to the effect that reports 

 upon the condition of the Smithsonian Institution and its dependency, 

 the National Museum, shall in the future have reference to the fiscal 

 year, -from July 1 to July 1, instead of, as in the past, covering the 

 calendar year. 



There has been a constant increase in the number of the accessions to 

 the Museum ; during these six months there were nearly twice as many 

 contributions as in the entire year of 1884. 



Owing to the fact that the greater portion of these six months was con- 

 sumed in the preparation of exhibits for New Orleans, no manuscript 

 was offered for publication in the form of Museum Bulletins, but it will 

 be seen that 236 papers bearing upon the collections in the various de- 

 partments of the Museum, were published during the first half of 1885, 

 which is far in excess of one-half the number of similar papers pub- 

 lished during the year 1884. 



There has been no important change in the character of the work of 

 the Museum as described in previous reports. It is pleasing to note 

 that nearly every curator states that considerable progress has been 

 made in the development both of the study and the exhibition series. 

 The space allotted to each department is more definitely fixed, and many 

 additional cases have been constructed and put into use. 



A statement relating to the exhibit made by the Institution at the 

 New Orleans Exposition is submitted, but since, at the close of the 

 period covered by this report, the exposition was still in progress, the 

 final and exhaustive article bearing upon this subject will be reserved 

 for the next report. 



It was the intention of myself and my associates in the Museum, to 

 present in this report a review of the past history of the Museum as a 



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