Oct., 1905. Annual Report of the Director. 



343 



which are purchased. A number of valuable books have been pur- 

 chased during the year, among them the following: — Thwaite's Early 

 Western Travels, 1748-1846 (31 vs.). Blair and Richardson, The 

 Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (55 vs.). Cavanilles, Icones et Descrip- 

 tiones Plant arum, 1791-1801 (6 vs.). Humboldt, von, Nova Genera 

 et Species Plantarum, 1815-1825 (6 vs.V It was ascertained during 

 the year that there were a number of institutions, both at home 

 and abroad, that were publishing literature that would be of great 

 assistance to the staff and students of the Museum. Invitations 

 to the number of 330 were extended for an exchange of publi- 

 cations and it is gratifying to report that very hearty acceptances 

 have been received from a large proportion of those addressed. 

 Several of these societies have sent, also, as complete sets of 

 their back publications as were available ; among them are the 

 Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, which sent its 

 Memoirs dating back to 1830, and, while not complete, are 

 most valuable; The Societe Beige de Geologic, de Paleontologie, 

 Bruxelles, 8 volumes; Royal Botanical Garden, Ceylon, 3 volumes; 

 Biblioteca Nacional, Chile, 21 volumes; Royal Zoological Society, 

 Dublin, 15 reports; Field Naturalists and Microscopical Society, 

 Edinburgh, 5 volumes; Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde, Stuttgart, 

 6 volumes; Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, England, 

 10 volumes; South African Philosophical Society, Cape Town, 7 vol- 

 umes; Missouri Horticultural Society, 11 volumes; and Iowa State 

 Horticultural Society, 13 volumes. An inventory has been made 

 of all books and pamphlets purchased since the establishment of the 

 Library in 1894. On account of the increasing number of books needed 

 in the Departmental Libraries, it was thought advisable to nominate 

 a member of the staff of each department to have charge of the 

 books, and the wisdom of this step is already apparent. Four hun- 

 dred and fifteen additional titles were furnished for the Second Supple- 

 ment (now in press) of the List of Serials in the Libraries of Chicago. 

 The number of cards written and added to the catalogues was 8,435, 

 exclusive of several thousand cards received from the Department of 

 Agriculture, to which the call number of the Library was added. 

 Twelve installments of the John Crerar Library catalogue cards have 

 been received. 583 books have been sent to the bindery during 

 the year, of which 225 have been returned. 



Departmental Cataloguing, Inventorying and Labeling.^ — The records of 

 the Department of Anthropology show an unusually large num- 



