United Stall's Ndtiiiiud Museum under cuustructiuu, j)t(ih<dil\ in ISSd. I'he jju luie ,(y/s lukeu /loi/i the Castle, looking east 

 toward the Clapitiil. 



Charles Doolittle Walcott 



Following Got)cle"s death, (Charles Doolittle Walcott 

 served as Acting Assistant Secietary, in charge of the 

 United States National Museum, tor eighteen months 

 in 1897 and 1898. Walcott was a paleontologist who 

 had risen through the ranks to become director of the 

 United States Geological Survey in 1894. That orga- 

 nization had run afoul of Congress, but made a come- 

 back under VV'alcott s leadership. Not only had he per- 

 suaded C^ongress to restore the budget to its former 

 levels in order to study geology and make topographic 

 maps; he convinced them that his organization should 

 be studying the national forests. 



Walcott continued to head the Geological Survey and 

 to publish papers on paleontology while he was Assis- 

 tant Secretary, but his close contacts with Congress now 

 benefited the National Museum as well. The Museum 

 had long planned to build side galleries in the four 

 main exhibit halls, and in 1897 Congress appropriated 

 $8,000 for the first of these galleries."' Goode had been 

 requesting funds without success since 1893. 



Walcott inherited an administrative hodgepodge, for 

 Goode had designated innumerable divisions and sec- 



tions within the United States National Museum. There 

 was virtually no paid staff; whenever a volunteer ap- 

 peared, a special niche was carved out for him as an 

 honorary curator or some such title. Although Walcott 

 was unable to increase the staff, he clarified the or- 

 ganization by setting up three departments: Anthro- 

 pology, Biology, and Geology. Each had a head curator, 

 with curators in charge of subdivisions. For the first 

 time a chain of cf:)mmand was established. The various 

 internal divisions have changed over the years. While 

 the Department of Anthropology survives intact, the 

 departments of Botany, Entomology, Invertebrate Zo- 

 ology, and Vertebrate Zoology represent the original 

 Biology Department; and Mineral Sciences and Paleo- 

 biology, Geology. 



As Acting Assistant Secretary, Walcott performed one 

 further, inestimable behind-the-scenes task for the Mu- 

 seum. "During his administration," the geologist Bailey 

 Willis relates, "'Uncle Joe' Cannon was Speaker of the 

 Flouse, and it was [Cannon's] habit after a fatiguing 

 session to walk up Pennsylvania Avenue. Walcott, as if 

 by chance, would draw up beside the curb with a fast- 

 stepping bay and a light buggy and suggest a drive in 



18 



The Structure 



