26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
tween two sections of the British Museum (Bloomsbury and South 
Kensington), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, 
the Museum of Practical Geology, Bethnal Green Museum, the Wal- 
lace Collection, the several national galleries of art, and others. In 
Washington, on the contrary and very fortunately, the entire mu- 
seum scheme has, by law, been essentially combined under one ad- 
ministration, which not only insures greater economy in manage- 
ment, but permits of a more logical classification and arrangement^ 
the elimination of duplication, and a consequent reduction in the 
relative amount of space required. 
The national collections of the United States are not yet to be com- 
pared as a whole with those of certain European countries, though in 
natural history they are probably not surpassed there. In respect to 
the fine arts, the Freer collection comprises the most important rep- 
resentation of oriental art in the world. However, in the fine arts 
generally and in the useful or industrial arts the National Museum 
has a great task before it, possible of accomplishment only when 
requisite facilities are supplied. 
Steps were taken during the year looking to the more definite 
organization of the department of arts and industries. Elaborate 
classifications have been proposed from time to time, but none of 
these have been strictly followed in the arrangement of the collec- 
tions, due mainly to the limitation of space. Work is being chiefly 
centered at present on those subdivisions which are most prominent 
in relation to current industrial affairs, but there are other subdivi- 
sions with important collections which are not represented by experts 
on the staff on account of lack of funds for their employment. As at 
present constituted the Department of Arts and Industries may be 
considered to consist of the Division of Mineral Technology, the 
Division of Textiles, the Section of Wood Technology, the Section of 
Foods, the Division of Medicine, and the Division of Mechanical 
Technology. 
War activities. — In the last report the action of the Board of 
Regents of the Institution at the request of the President of the 
United States in closing the natural history building to the public on 
July 16, 1918, was noted, enabling the Museum to furnish the Bureau 
of War Risk Insurance of the Treasury Department with 138,600 
square feet of space for office purposes on the ground and the two 
exhibition floors. This was done with the understanding that the 
Museum would be vacated upon the completion of the building then 
being erected for the bureau at the corner of Vermont Avenue and 
II Street, and that the Museum space would be turned back to the 
Museum authorities in the same condition in which it was received 
by the bureau. Late in March the bureau moved to its own struc- 
ture, but its funds were then so depleted that it was unable to carry 
