of all collections made by government agencies, no one 

 is particular about when and how custody is trans- 

 ferred. Since the inception of entomological studies in 

 the Department of Agriculture, the collections have 

 been turned over to the Museum. Each year, one piece 

 of paper transfers title to hundreds of thousands of 

 insects. Collections of the Biological Survey were always 

 in the new National Museum, but until the 194Us they 

 were kept separate. When Wetmore wanted to examine 

 certain birds, he would approach Oberholser, who would 

 unlock the appropriate case and later relock it. The 

 Geological Survey retains large collections in the Mu- 

 seum and elsewhere. At irregular intervals it transfers 

 large loads of fossils to the Museum, but it promptly 

 transfers all 'specimens illustrated for publication. 



Members of the public often donate or sell specimens 

 to the Museimi. Donations are extremely important to 

 the Museum, and a major reason for an annual report 

 was to list the donors of specimens. The whole business 

 of accessioning collections is to ensure legal title and 

 pioper record-keeping. Periodically, people who have 

 donated material, or whose relatives have donated, come 

 to the Museum to see those specimens, which will be 

 lound lor ihem. 



One of the sad trends of the last few decades is a 

 decrease in the number of places in America that main- 

 tain natural history collections. A considerable amount 

 of collection growth during the past few years has been 

 by salvage of specimens from universities and other 

 institutions going out of the business. Natural history 

 material with proper documentation should never be 

 discarded, and the Museum performs a valuable service 

 in becoming the repository for these major collections 

 suddenlv thrown into limbo. Specimens that are de- 

 scribed in a scientific paper assume international sig- 

 nificance. Government scientists are required to place 

 such specimens in the Museum, but there are no such 

 restrictions on anyone else. Fortunately, many scientists 

 have come to see the merit of a national center, and a 

 large number of tvpe specimens are presented annually 

 to the Museum. 



The Issue of Value 



Purchase of specimens is an exceedingly delicate area. 

 In the traditional view, each object, be it natural or 

 man-made, is unique, and because it is unique is either 

 priceless or valueless. Neither concept assigns it any 

 monetary worth. Some objects do have value in the 

 nonmuseum world, but it was a tragedy for natural 

 history when interior decorators began to frame slabs 

 of fossil fish and hang them on walls. An unfortunate 

 consequence of this fad of the decorator/collector crowd 

 is that there is now a monetary interest in many natural 

 history objects. Because of the possibility of theft, even 

 the most humdrum of specimens are being put under 

 lock and key. Security is important, but there is concern 

 among some curators that overemphasis on security 



may inhibit scientific investigation. 



Value created by scarcity, not "collectibihty," is an 

 even more serious problem. Many objects that once 

 could be collected in profusion can no longer be readily 

 obtained, and may not be obtainable at all. No amount 

 of money or expense can produce additional specimens 

 of the passenger pigeon. 



To sttidy passenger pigeons or anything else, it is 

 necessary to see specimens. A large number of people 

 now come to the Museum because they cannot make 

 their own collections of what they would like to study, 

 and for the same reason, lending specimens has become 

 a big enterprise — perhaps twenty-five times what it was 

 thirty years ago. Specimens sent on loan must be re- 

 trieved from the collections, listed, counted, and 

 wrapped. When sent back, they must be unwrapped, 

 listed, counted and returned to the collections. 



Because of this whole issue of value, one major preoc- 

 cupation of the Museum during the past decade has 

 been an inventory program. The Museimi of American 

 History suffered some well-publicized losses, particu- 

 larly in the pistol collection and the Early American 

 silver collection. The loss drew attention to the fact that 

 there was no proper inventory, and spurred Congress 

 lo order an inventory program throughout the Smith- 

 sonian. 



Benefits of the Inventory 



It is one sort of problem to count airplanes or even 

 paintings, and another sort of problem to count beetles. 

 Half the kinds of living things in the world are insects. 

 Most ciuators were loath to be involved with the in- 

 ventory, yet it had to be done. The program was con- 

 ducted in a variety of ways by the different depart- 

 ments. Some inventoried almost every specimen, some 

 inventoried only types, and some inventoried selected 

 collections. On balance, most of those who participated 

 see the inventory program as having been beneficial. 

 It accomplished some improvements in the arrange- 

 ment of the collections that would never have been 

 financed otherwise. The curators now have more data 

 on distribution to "massage" than would otherwise have 

 been compiled. Were it not for the Automatic Data 

 Processing system, the program could not have accom- 

 plished what it did. 



One consequence of the inventory program is that 

 there now are periodic audits in which auditors look 

 for particular specimens. To move a specimen from 

 one drawer to another now requires much filling out 

 of forms, and some curators worry that desire to win 

 an auditor's report that every jar is in the right place 

 may overshadow the desire to investigate the contents 

 of the jars. 



One good consequence of the inventory was that some 

 of the young helpers who survived it found permanent 

 jobs in the Musem, and will be the next generation of 

 technicians and research assistants. Another was that 



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The MiLseum 



