Installing the Easter Island 

 images in the National 

 Museum, 1888. George 

 Brown Goode is to the left. 

 Secretary Langley stands 

 with hat in hand, and to the 

 right is Otis T. Mason, later 

 to he second head of the 

 Department of Anthropology. 

 Copied from a print in 

 William Hetny Holmes's 

 "Random Records. ' 



Rock Creek Park, but during these rides he never men- 

 tioned business. On one occasion 'Uncle Joe' paused, 

 his foot on the step, and said: 'Walcott, you may have 

 a building for the Survey or one for the National Mu- 

 seum, but you can't have both.' And Walcott took the 

 Museum." " 



Richard C. Rathbun 



In 1898 Richard C. Rathbun was named Assistant Sec- 

 retary, in charge of the United States National Museum, 

 and Walcott returned full-time to the Geological Sur- 

 vey. Rathbun had started his career as a geologist, but 

 under Baird's spell he had become enamored of fish 

 and, like Goode, soon developed a compulsive concern 

 for collections and museums. It is to him that we owe 

 our clear account of the first National Museum building 

 and the various attempts to persuade Congress to build 

 a new one. After Walcott left, it was Rathbun who kept 

 up congressional interest, for Secretary Langley was 

 preoccupied with developing a man-carrying aircraft, 

 and, to put it gently, was not known for either his 

 administrative or political skills. In 1903 Congress fi- 

 nally authorized the building, at a cost not to exceed 

 $3,500,000 — a figure attained through some political 

 shufflings with several proposals. Before midyear a firm 

 of Washington architects, Hornblower and Marshall, 

 had been selected to draw the final plans. It was ex- 

 pected that construction would take about four or five 

 years. '"^ 



In the 1880s the general idea of a second museum 



had been a brick building similar to the United States 

 National Museum, but two stories high. The World 

 Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago set the stage 

 for a change from high Victorian style to neoclassic 

 architecture. It also inspired what became the McMillan 

 Commission to beautify the city of Washington. The 

 proposed museum was to be the first building con- 

 structed according to the dictates of the Commission, 

 and plans for it became increasingly elaborate. For a 

 time the anticipated building was one-third larger again 

 than the one that actually was constructed. 



Langley led the ground-breaking on June 14, 1904, 

 but faded from the scene and died early in 1906. The 

 Board of Regents offered the secretaryship to Henry 

 Fairfield Osborn, who declined to leave the American 

 Museum of Natural History in New York City. At last, 

 in 1907, Walcott became the fourth Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



For several years Rathbun bore the burdens of the 

 Museum and its new building. As Acting Secretary after 

 Langley's death, he oversaw all of the Smithsonian's 

 increasing activities, and while the new Secretary was 

 settling into office and going off to Canada to search 

 for fossils, Rathbun planned the new exhibits and the 

 horrendous job of moving the collections. When all was 

 finished, Rathbun described the building. There is much 

 architectural terminology to digest and perhaps more 

 detail than one wants in this account, but one cannot 

 help feeling that Rathbun loved every bolt and brick 

 in his lovely new building. □ 



The United Stales National Museum 



19 



