Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution
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I> A^ li T I REPORT UPON THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1898. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETAKY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSITTUTION, IN CHARGE OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. NAT MUS 98 1 REPORT UPON THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1898. BY Charles D. Walcott, Acting Assisfavt Secretary, Smithsonian Iriatitution, in charge of the U. S. National Museum. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. ORGANIZATION.^ In the iutroductioii to the Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, attention was called to a new plan of organization, which went into effect July 1, 1897, and the statement was made that the results of its operations would be considered in the Report for 1898. The various divisions and sections of Anthropology, Biology, and Geology, which had previously been conducted independently of one another, the curators and custodians reporting directly to the Assistant Secretary in charge of the Museum, were united under three head cura- tors, one of anthropology, another of biology, and a third of geology. This secured direct expert supervision and properly correlated the work of each department. Before, such correlation had been impossi- ble, owing to the large number of independent heads of sections and divisions in each department, who planned and executed the work more or less independently of one another. The official correspondence was also more closely centralized in the executive office of the Museum. Anthropology.—In the Department of Anthropology a large amount of work was done by Mr. W. H. Holmes in reorganizing and installing the exhibits, under a general scheme approved early in the year. The organization of the department, the personnel, and the details of the work will be found in his report. There are a number of sections that have not yet been assigned to any division, remaining for the present under the direct supervision of the head curator. Moreover, the clas- sification of material and the division of work among the various mem- bers of the present staff, so far as it has progressed, is largely tentative, owing to the staff being composed of specialists in limited portions of the field of anthropology; this necessitates a somewhat arbitrary The organization of the staff is given in Appendix I. 4 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. classification and organization. As the various branches of the work develop, and increase is made in the number of curators, reclassifica- tion of material and readjustment of the force will gradually lead to a satisfactory and permanent organization. The accessions to the department were numerous and valuable. Among those of more notable importance is a collection of antiquities and ethnological material, the bequest of the late Mr. W. Hallett Phillips, of Washington, to the Smithsonian Institution. This collec- tion is not only of great extent, but of exceptional value to archaeolog- ical science. It contains 12,407 ancient relics, mainly stone implements from the Potomac region, and 106 ethnological specimens from Poly- nesia. By transfer from the Bureau of American Ethnology the Museum received material from Arizona, Arkansas, and Georgia; and by transfer from the Army Medical Museum, a collection of 2,206 human crania, representing mainly the Indian tribes, ancient and mod- ern, of North America. There was received on deposit, and at the same time ottered for sale, an extensive collection of stone implements and other ancient relics from various parts of Georgia, together with a collection of ethnological material from the Indians of the Great Plains and the Eocky Mountains, made by Emile Granier, of Paris. Valuable deposits were made by Prof. Alexander Graham Bell. These include a large number of i)ieces of apparatus made and used by him in his experiments and researches in various branches of electrical sci- ence. The General Electric Company also deposited many pieces of original apparatus connected with the early use of electricity for light- ing, the transmission of x>ower, and like purposes. Other valuable deposits are described in the report of the head curator. During the year there were prepared by the curators and expert preparators of the department a number of models illustrating primitive life, processes, implements, utensils, etc. The research work of the department during the year was extensive, the study, comparison, and classification of the collections before instal- lation being essential to their intelligent utilization. The system of installation inaugurated by Mr. Holmes is somewhat elaborate. The primary arrangement is founded, first, on the geo- graphical or ethnographical assemblage, and, second, on the develop- mental or genetic assemblage. Other methods may be classed as sjiecial. They are the chronological, the comi)arative, the individual, etc. The primary methods are adapted to the presentation of the general truths of anthropology, and the special methods ai^e available for limited por- tions of the field. A full description of the method of installation will be found in Mr. Holmes's report. Biology.—The Department of Biology was embarrassed by reason of Dr. True's time being largely consumed in executive work, and it was not until late in the year that he secured an assistant curator to take charge of the work in the Division of Mammals. REPORT OF ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY. O 111 many ways the Departmeiit of Biology, wbeu establisbed at the beginning of the fiscal year, was in much better condition than either of the other two departments. The several zoological divisions already existing and the Division of Plants were brought together under a separate administrative head. As many of these divisions have been in existence since the reorganization of the Museum in 1881, and several of them for a much longer period, the organization of the department was a relatively simi)le matter. The biological specimens constitute the larger part of the Museum collections. They had been in charge of curators and assistants who followed the well-defined and long-established methods of systematic zoology and botany, and there- fore no radical changes in the scientific methods or in the business administration of these divisions were required. The efiorts of the head curator were largely in the direction of developing those features which, from various cases, had not had due prominence. He found the same difficulties met with by the other head curators in regard to laboratory and exhibition space and the force at his command. A large amount of the biological mal erial is displayed in the Smithsonian build- ing. The bringing together of all the invertebrates in this building was accomplished during the year, and this is a great gain in the classi- fication of the exhibits. These collections include insects, mollusks, and all other classes of invertebrates. The display in Musuem build- ing includes the mammals, batrachians, reptiles, fishes, and the collec- tions representing comparative anatomy. The birds remain in the Smithsonian building, it having been found impracticable to transfer this large exhibit to the Museum building. The erection of galleries in the Museum building—a subject adverted to later—while not involving great changes in this department, as in the departments of Anthropology and Geology, rendered necessary the complete reinstallation of the large exhibition series of mammals. In the reinstallation Dr. True arranged the zoological exhibition on a faunal basis, special ijrominence being given to the faunas of the United States. This principal series is to be supplemented by various smaller series illustrating important topics in biology. The additions to the zoological and botanical collections were nu- merous, and in some directions unusually important! The generous donation of Messrs. Hubbard and Schwarz of their collection of Coleop- tera, principally North American, comprising about 200,001) specimens and representing approximately 12,000 species, is of great importance, as it places the IsTational Museum in advance of all others as regards North American Coleoptera. Dr. W. L. Abbott continued his liberal gifts to the Museum by presenting large collections of birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, and other animals from lower Siam and Kashmir; and Dr. W. L. Ralph supplemented his valuable additions to the collections of birds' eggs. The largest acquisition to the mollusks consisted in the gift by Dr. R. Ellsworth Call of a collection including over 86,000 specimens. 6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. Great activity prevailed during the year in the Division of Plants. Accessions to the number of 307 were made, including the purchase of all of the most valuable sets of American plants offered for sale that were needed to iill out the Government collections. This division is more fortunate than others in the Museum, having funds from which such purchases can be made. The scientific bureaus of the Government, including the Fish Com- mission and the Biological Survey of the Dej^artment of Agriculture, continued to make very valuable additions to the national biological collections. A full description of tliese, and also of numerous additions from individuals, is given in the report of the head curator of the dei)art- ment, where also will be found the changes in the personnel and an account of the work for the year. Geology.—In the Department of Geology Dr. Merrill gave a large por- tion of his time during the year to studying various European museums for the j)urpose of obtaining information as to the best cases and methods of installation of collections in museums. In addition to the head curator's absence, nearly all work was suspended in the exhibition halls during the construction of the new galleries and exhibition cases, so that little progress was made in the exhibition series during the first half of the year.