Rolland Hower with freeze- 

 dried animals. In the 

 foreground are a sunfish 

 (LepomisJ, a cedar wax- 

 wing (Bombycillaj, and a 

 ynuskrat (Ondatra); behind 

 is a Pallas cat fFelisj and a 

 red-tailed hawk (Buteo). 

 This was taken in the west 

 wing of the main building in 

 November 1967. 



and its proximity to the saws, this courtyard first was 

 used to store stone bltjcks and slabs awaiting cutting 

 and polishing. (i.P. Merrill solicited them from con- 

 tiactors wh(j shipped building-stone samples to Wash- 

 ington, only to lose a bid. In 1915, for example, the 

 Museum accjuired stone samples submitted for the Red 

 Cross Building and for the Memorial Amphitheater at 

 Arlington.' ' 



I)ui ing World War 1, the east courtyard was partially 

 occupied. The Museum's taxidermists had worked in 

 a two-story brick structui e built near the Castle in 1875. 

 When it was torn down to make room for the Freer 

 Gallery, "the building erected in the east court of the 

 Natural History Building bv the Bureau of War Risk 

 Insurance and turned over to the museum at the ex- 

 piration of their occupancy of the building, part of 

 which is intended for use as a taxidermist shop, was 

 improved by the installation of a galvanized iron gable 

 skylight on the roof and the replacing of ground glass 

 in the west section with clear glass."'"' The next year, 

 1920, "the building in the east court was remodeled by 

 providing doors and portable glass transoms on the 

 west side."'' Later "the hot-water heating system of the 

 Natural History Building was extended to the concrete 

 building in the east court. "'^ 



Judging from what was done to this building, it could 

 not have won any architectural prizes, for it was erected 

 to serve as a ladies' toilet when 3,000 clerks were in the 

 building. Nevertheless, this temporary structure lasted 

 for four decades, about as long as its predecessor be- 

 hind the Castle. In addition to taxidermy, part of the 



building was used for storing whale bones, and part 

 was used as the labor-force locker room. Numerous live 

 animals were kept in the courtyard to allow the taxi- 

 dermists to study their movements. A pair of tortoises 

 lived there, too. While the vertebrate preparators on 

 the east side of the east range watched girls sunbathe 

 near the parking lot, the Geological Survey preparators 

 on the west side climbed out of the windows to eat lunch 

 in the courtyard and watch the tortoises make love. 



Large objects that did not fit elsewhere went into the 

 courtyard. Totem poles lay there for a time. Merrill's 

 stones and slabs accumulated; one large slab of sand- 

 stone, propped against a wall, sagged after a few dec- 

 ades. Some war canoes that sat in the yard eventually 

 were placed on rocks and finally had a roof built over 

 them. Until the 1950s, large whale bones were parked 

 here and there around the perimeter. 



Eventually another temporary building was con- 

 structed in the east court. Shortly before World War 

 11, G. Arthur Cooper had begun to collect limestone 

 blocks in which the fossils had been replaced by silica. 

 When the blocks were placed in hydrochloric acid, the 

 limestone dissolved and the fossils remained. Magnif- 

 icent ccillections were prepared by this technique. Cooper 

 did the work in a tiny, unventilated third-floor room, 

 and no one considered the effects of acid on pipe fit- 

 tings. When a guard in the mineral hall below noticed 

 that one of the suspended light globes was two-thirds 

 full of an ugly brown liquid, Cooper had to find another 

 lab. 



During the early 1950s the acid operations moved to 



154 



The Museum 



