Jack F. Marquardt, librarian of the Natural History 

 Branch, in the decked, area of the west north range, ground 

 floor. Behind him are the various devices that librarians 

 now use more cornmonly than pe?icils. Jack is 07i his lunch 

 hour and is trying to keep ahead oj staff requests by reading 

 science fiction. July 1984. 



Madeline Tawney on the third f loor of the main building, 

 west wing, July 1984; the office was formerly part of the 

 Division of Birds. The move to the Museum Support Center 

 is accompanied by large amounts of computer paper from 

 data processing. 



While decking on the Mall side was extended, some 

 decking on the north side, where the old offices of 

 Fishes had been, was removed. This area became a large 

 cabinet-making and paint shop for exhibits, and re- 

 mains so today. Eventually a large share of the exhibits 

 program moved to "Exhibits Central" at 1111 North 

 Capitol Street, a catch-all building for a number of 

 Smithsonian activities. 



James Mead's Project 



In 1972, when national concern about marine mammals 

 was running high, James Mead arrived at the Museum 

 from two years at a whaling station. Mead was to in- 

 vestigate strandings of mammals along the East Coast 

 and to increase the size of the collections. The Division 

 of Mammals had hoped to develop a center for the 

 study of marine mammals in the Torpedo Factory in 

 Alexandria, but this became an artists' center, so Mead 

 moved into the Butler building along with a few re- 

 maining people from Exhibits. He set up a cooking 

 system for boiling porpoise skulls in a former spray- 

 paint booth. The exhaust fan moved the smell into the 

 courtyard, whence it soon was picked up by the air- 

 intake tower. After that there was more removal of flesh 

 by hand in preparation of specimens, and less boiling. 



The best way ever found to clean bones for osteo- 

 logical investigation is to remove as much of the meat 

 as possible by hand and then let dermestid beetle larvae 

 eat the rest. This standard technique is, to many people, 

 one of the most curious aspects of the Museum's work. 

 For about twenty-five years the "south shed" behind 



the Castle was used for the beetles, the theory being 

 that if they were kept away from the Museum, the 

 collections would be safe from their scavenging. Over 

 the years this facility became increasingly decrepit and 

 smelly. 



In 1975 the dermestid beetles and a laboratory for 

 the preparation of large specimens, mostly from Mead's 

 collecting, were moved into rooms in the Osteo-Prep- 

 aration Laboratory, a small two-story building in the 

 east court, between the courtyard wall and the air-con- 

 ditioning plant. This was a major step up from the south 

 shed and the Butler building. Not only did Mead ap- 

 preciate it; everyone else in the Museum did too. One 

 small whale being brought to the new lab did fall off 

 a cart in the entryway to the courtyard, and because 

 there was no way to move it. Mead and others prepared 

 it on the spot. Air-conditioning engineers who had to 

 walk past it going to and from work were cranky while 

 the bones were being flensed. 



By 1973, when the Butler buildings were vacated, 

 the Museum's marvelous taxidermy staff had shrunk 

 to one person, yet there was no space for skin prepa- 

 ration. On the third floor of the Museimi, apart from 

 the private facilities in the director's office and Holmes's 

 old office, there was one large women's restroom and 

 one men's room, each with marble floors, marble walls, 

 and marble partitions. The decision was made to con- 

 vert the men's room for work on skins; this facility is 

 known as the "marble ballroom." In the game of win- 

 ners and losers, male scientists in the main building 

 now must walk great distances to the wings. □ 



Shared Facilities 



157 



