Table 4 

 Museum of Natural History 

 Attendance 1910-1984 



Fiscal 



Number of 



Fiscal 



Number of 



Year 



Visitors 



Year 



Visitors 



1910' 



50,403 



1948 



650,704 



1911 



151,112 



1949 



689,233 



1912 



281,887 



1950 



724,948 



1913 



319,806 



1951 



757,126 



1914 



329,381 



1952 



854,463 



1915 



321,712 



1953 



830,775 



1916 



381,228 



1954 



861,955 



1917 



407,025 



1955 



905,292 



1918 



401,100 



1956 



1,007,578 



1 9 1 9-' 



132,859 



1957 



1,160,041 



1920 



422,984 



1958 



1,401,772 



1 92 1 



467,299 



1959 



1,957,747 



1 922 



441,604 



1960 



2,218,747 



1923 



508,518 



1961 



2,047,973 



1924 



540,776 



1962 



2, 113, 053 



1925 



557,016 



1963 



2,288,397 



1 926 



581,563 



1964 



2,512,306 



1 927 



561 ,286 



1965 



3,051,472 



1 928 



618,773 



1966 



2,988,006 



1929 



650,815 



1967 



3,409,957 



1930 



625,326 



1968 



3,257,957 



1 93 1 



631,498 



1969' 



2,916,749 



1932 



600,535 



1970 



3,269,791 



1933 



519,977 



1971 



3,456,755 



1934 



507,948 



1972 



3,404,571 



1935 



606,145 



1973 



3,305,836 



1 936 



635,561 



1974 



3,067,694 



1937 



702,657 



1975 



4,442,61 1 



1938 



750,307 



1976^ 



6,435,654 



1939 



709,139 



1977^ 



5,777,643 



1940 



809,661 



1978 



5,366,159 



1941 



803,466 



1979 



5,594,748 



1942 



622,989 



1980 



5,202,864 



1943 



424,055 



1981 



4,998,736 



1944 



493,239 



1982 



4,961,180 



1945 



531,712 



1983 



5,650,406 



1946 



606,310 



1984 



6,096,282 



1947 



637,917 







1. Government fiscal vear July 1-June 30, until 1977. 



2. Building open for only three months of the year. 



3. Building closed Mondays October 21. 1968-April 7, 1969. 



4. Extra 3 months added to this fiscal year. 



5. Government fiscal year changed to October 1 — 

 September 30. 



The Museum used to close on Christmas and New 

 Year's days. During World War II a determination was 

 made to keep the building open on New Year's Day, 

 so that now the only day that it is closed is Christmas. 

 The change from the original hours of 9:00 a.m. to 

 4:30 P.M. to the current hours of 10:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. 

 took place in the 1950s. 



From the fall of 1968 through the spring of 1969, 

 the Smithsonian buildings were closed to the public on 

 Mondays as an economy measure. There was not enough 

 money to pay the guards needed to patrol the exhibit 

 halls, and until the requisite funds were appropriated, 

 many tourists who planned to see the Museum were 

 turned away. In retrospect, it seems strange to spend 

 millions of dollars on displays and not spend a few 

 thousand to allow them to be seen, and it is tempting 

 to trot out an epigram by Prank Wigglesworth Clark, 

 an honorary curator appointed in the 1880s: "The gov- 

 ernment will spare neither time nor money in the pur- 

 suit of economy." 



A happier development beginning in the 1970s has 

 been the lengthening of visiting hours during the sum- 

 mer. Various combinations ol months and hours have 

 been tried. ¥o\ a while a six-month extension of visiting 

 hours was in effect, llien it was limited to the summer 

 months, and finally a few weeks in April were also 

 included. At the beginning of this experimentation the 

 hours were extended until 9 P.M., but after several ad- 

 justments, closing time was fixed at 7:30 P.M. Because 

 of the extra hours in the evening, one cannot exactly 

 compare attendance figures from the pre- 1960s with 

 those of later decades, but the chances are good that 

 had the evening hours not been added, the Museum 

 would be even more crowded during the day. In the 

 summer, it is better to visit the Museum of Natural 

 History late in the day or in the early evening. By then 

 most of the tourists who started out at the crack of 

 dawn have collapsed either from the heat outside the 

 buildings or from a nonfatal disease known as "museum 

 fatigue" or the more localized "museum feet." 



Counting the Visitors 



The annual reports and Smithsonian Year have kept track 

 of a variety of facts and figures, but the one item that 

 has never been omitted is the number of visitors. The 

 Smithsonian's officials all are very much aware of the 

 importance of the public exhibits in maintaining public 

 tax support for the Institution. If for some bizarre rea- 

 son the Smithsonian should ever close forever, the last 

 activity to stop would be the guards' clicking their me- 

 chanical hand-counters to tally each visitor entering 

 each building. Visitor counts have been compiled since 

 the National Museum first opened in 1881. 



It took five years for the new National Museum to 

 log its first million visitors, the total by the end of fiscal 

 year I9I5 being 1,618,576. It took another nine years 

 to reach the five-million mark, the cumulative count by 



1 



72 



The Museum 



