61 
principal vegetables also having been added ; while a regularly ap- 
pointed taxidermist, Mrs. Teresa Drexler, made considerable additions 
to the collections of birds and poultry. Miss Caroline C. Moulton was 
maseum attendant. 
Then the preparations for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 were in- 
augurated, the supervision of the work of getting up the museum ex- 
hibit devolving upon the assistant entomologist,* who, co-operating af- 
terwards with Professor Baird, was enabled to almost double the col- 
lections of the department from foreign exhibits, necessitating the erec- 
tion of a gallery on each side of the museum hall. 
Mr. Glover had by this time so far lost interest in the museum, being 
now wholly absorbed in his entomological work and its publication, 
that when the acquisition of this great mass of material necessitated a 
better classification and arrangement of the museum display the for- 
mulation of a new plan of arrangement was left entirely to the writer. 
The classification which was then devised is published at the end of 
the entomologist’s report in the annual volume for 18 77, pages 118 to 
148, t in a special report made to Mr. Glover. 
It may be stated that the scheme of arrangement set forth in this 
published classification was closely followed in the reorganization which 
shortly followed. 
The museum was now (1877) at the zenith of its importance and use- 
fulness, and shortly after its decline begau. The first calamity which 
occurred to it was the loss of many of its large and valuable collections 
gathered at the Centennial, which, for want of a few hundred dollars 
worth of display bottles and other material suitable for their exhibition, 
asked for and repeatedly refused, remained stored in the garret above 
the museum hall. Through the officiousness of the property clerk of 
the department, appointed by Commissioner Le Due, or by the Com- 
missioner’s order, this mass of material was either sold to a junk dealer 
or thrown on a rubbish heap, according to its market value at U junk” 
prices, and thousands of dollars’ worth of valuable museum material 
wasted and destroyed. Then followed Mr. Glover’s retirement from 
active duty, and as the assistant entomologist shortly after resigned, 
and other changes had occurred in the museum corps, the museum was 
practically left w ithout care, as no regular curator was aiipointed for 
several years. Dr. Vasey was given nominal charge for a time, but his 
own duties as botanist were sufficient to occupy his whole attention. 
The remainder of the story is briefly told. A wooden exhibition build- 
ing had been erected in one corner of the department grounds for the dis- 
play of railroad exhibits and other similar exposition displays. More 
*See Agricultural Report for 1876, p. 17. 
tThe entomologist reluctantly incorporated this museum report and classification 
into his own report, signing his name to the two documents in one to avoid running 
counter to the whims and absurd prejudices of the gentleman who was then Com- 
missioner of Agriculture. This statement is made in simple justice to the author of 
the report. 
