Chapter 8 



The Great War and 

 Its Lingering Aftermath 



THE FIRST HINT OF COMING DIFFICULTIES waS re- 

 corded in an annual report: "The auditorium was 

 used on June 1, 1917, for an address to the employees 

 of the Institution and its branches by Eugene E. 

 Thompson, secretary of the Washington liberty Loan 

 Committee, who explained the object of the Liberty 

 Loan, how the bonds could be purchased, and the de- 

 sire of Federal of f icials having the matter in charge that 

 the first loan of the United States receive as great a 

 number of individual subscriptions as did the last loan 

 in Great Britain."' The weekly "Local Notes" that Sec- 

 retary Walcott had instituted the year before record 

 that the staff was paid in advance so that they could 

 participate in the loan drive. Later the "Notes" record 

 the sponsoring of a Red Cross ambulance by the staf f . 

 Benjamin Walcott, the Secretary's youngest son, went 

 off to fly for the French and died in 1917. 



The Great War impinged upon the Mall in increas- 

 ingly real ways. "From the first evidence of trouble, the 

 [geology] department was subject to call for material 

 for experimental pin poses, particularly along the lines 

 of electricity, radioactivity, light and sound transmis- 

 sion, from all branches of the government, the Geo- 

 physical Laboratory, and numerous private investiga- 

 tors."" Later, for a period of several months, Merrill 

 "was detailed by the Council of National Defense to 

 find a sufficient stipply of quartz for naval supersonic 

 purposes for not only his own country but for France 

 and England as well." * Biological effects of gas warfare 

 and peat as a ftiel source were investigated. The Di- 

 vision of Physical Anthropology furnished data on the 

 human races of the Balkans, and other parts of the 

 Museum supplied esoteric information now vital to the 

 nation. 



On October 13, 1917, President Wilson called to Sec- 

 retary Walcott's attention the urgent need for space to 

 house the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, a new agency 

 under the Treasury Department. He asked if part of 

 the Arts and Indttstries building could be used. Instead, 



Wartime rally in /roiil oj the Museum, 

 looking north from the Mall. 



space was made in "the foyer on the ground fioor of 

 the natural history building with the adjoining rooms, 

 and shortly after, the west north and west ranges, by 

 removing the collections of the division of mammals 

 and of the Biological Siu vey to the same ranges on the 

 second floor. The space thtis provided amounted to 

 approximately 25,000 square feet."^ 



While accepting, as his colleagues did, the necessity 

 of this sacrifice, Stejneger was quite clear as to the up- 

 heaval it caused within the Museum: 



when late in the calendar year of 1917 the division 

 of mammals and the Biological Survey were called 

 upon to give up their laboratory and storage space 

 in the west and west north ranges, ground [floor], 

 it was decided to move the cases containing these 

 collections up into the corresponding exhibition 

 space on the second floor. In these ranges were 

 exhibited the District of Columbia fauna, the 

 domestic animal series, all the invertebrates 

 including the insects, the whole synoptic series, the 

 special exhibits of color aberrations, hybrids, birds 

 eggs and nests, the destructive work of insects, the 

 historical exhibit of the corals of the Wilkes 

 Exploring Expedition, etc. The bulk of the 

 exhibition cases were placed in adjacent alcoves 

 containing the special exhibits, but a large number 

 had to be given shelter in the whale hall, which 

 thereby became unduly crowded with a very 

 heterogeneous assembly of exhibits. Some of the 

 large cases could not be thus accommodated and, 

 like that containing the zebu and the yak, were 

 transferred to the south side of the south hall on 

 the first floor, where the original arrangement . . . 

 had to be distin bed and the cases crowded 

 together. Toward the end of the fiscal year it 

 became necessary to give up more space for the 

 same purpose, in consequence of which both the 

 big halls on either side of the great skylight hall on 

 the first floor for the west wing had to be cleared 

 of their exhibits. . . . ' 



On November 2.3, (he President again wrote to 

 the secretary [Walcott] asking that the Board of 



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