Jamary 6th 1952 
Dr. John E. Graf 
Assistant Secretary 
Smithsonian Institution 
Dear John: 
I just receiTet? yotir bi? letter of January 3rd. Eeadinsy it first 
6 bit horridly, 1 would say that we are in pretty good agreement, a:t^ that 
the question is one of values. Also, there Is little that Wetmore and I had 
not already ??one over. So as to simplify ay reply, I will refer to each of 
your paragraphs by number. 
(1) I alrea#" explained what the ©ivht upper floor rooms aad corridor were 
to be used for, and that there was no ne^ of water thez«. Frankly, I did 
not over-estimate tlie need for storage. There is mch In 0902 that should 
be on the island. 
I stated that two of these rocms would be used for t!» library, and ihis 
brings i5p the question of ptirchaslng metal book oases, bwi^ on ^e order 
oi iriundt’s at Mirafloi^s. lou will recall Vilding got for us estimates, 
and I wrote you August 10 1950 ro this ai^ stated how mmy would be required 
The herbariutt, species indexes, etc will also be on this second floor, i^d 
we TBUst have roc® for glasawaro, apparatus, etc, which now in scattered 
everywhere. 
This coning week they will start laying the reinforced concre'W floor which 
will extend 5 ft beyond the building lines. I am also going to put in the 
four toilets and four showers. And I an also planning now to wall in the 
lower fl€K»r with the terraeota blocks. We will put in the wat«r lines and 
I plan also to put in tlw laboratory sinks. 
You are right, I did say there will be four rooms roughly 16' x 24' which 
will be for laboratory use, and I did sty that in a pinch, we could use 
these as dormitories for scientists. 
I also said that one room, about 12' x 16*, would be for photoisTaphy scad 
that Soper agreed to furnish it with modern equipment. 
To do this will take a lot of blocks, we need doors, windows, scireening, 
etc., and all of this must be taken to the island, and hauled up to this 
upper level. 
I am in agreement that we should do all we can to finish this building out 
of 1952 FI funds 
The amount I indicated does not include the concrete water iwthiiBwg* storage 
