116 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
architecture of the proposed Bahai Temple for Chicago, exhibited 
during March, 1918. 
The natural history building, under normal conditions, is greatly 
overcrowded with the collections of its departments of biology, 
geology, and anthropology, and of the art gallery, nearly one-fourth 
of its space being given over to art in its various forms. The need 
of considering the erection of a building exclusively for the National 
Gallery of Art is pressing and should receive early attention. The 
gallery has already failed to acquire many rich gifts of art works 
because of the impossibility of caring for them in the present build- 
ings, and because of this unpreparedness art treasures of great worth, 
well within its reach, have gone elsewhere. 
Death of William T. Evans.— In this connection, I regret to an- 
nounce the death, on November 25, 1918, at Glen Ridge, N. J., of Mr. 
William T. Evans, whose generous gifts to the National Gallery of 
Art have been reported. 
In 1907, when the project of a national gallery of art had been 
definitely launched, Mr. Evans was among the first to recognize its 
importance, and in that year gave 54 paintings, representing the best 
of American artists. Since then he has added to his gift from time 
to time until at present his collection numbers 150 paintings, 115 
wood engravings, and 1 fine etching, which are valued at approxi- 
mately $1,000,000. 
War activities. — During the trying conditions that have prevailed 
in the United States since it entered the war the National Museum 
has demonstrated its value as a national asset in many ways. Mem- 
bers of its staff of experts, its great collections, its laboratories, and 
all the information in its possession have been placed unreservedly 
at the service of the executive departments and other Government 
agencies, and have been frequently used by a number of them. Its 
exhibition halls have been closed to visitors and turned into office 
quarters for over 5,000 employees of one of the important war 
bureaus of the Government — the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. 
Facilities for the comfort and recreation of officers and men stationed 
in the vicinity and drilling on the Mall have been provided in the 
Smithsonian Building, and the reading rooms of the libraries have 
been equipped with tables and writing materials for all men in 
uniform. The Department of Geology has been frequently called 
upon to furnish materials for experimental work. A single call em- 
braced 27 varieties of minerals. At the request of the National Re- 
search Council, the head curator of this department has taken over 
the entire work of securing optical quartz for the needs of the United 
States and Great Britain. 
The Division of Mineral Technology has concentrated its activities 
for the year upon the interrelationships and consequent interpend- 
