p.R. h' ANNUAL IIEPOIIT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, THE OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES. AND CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905 BEPORT OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. of "^-y^ \^^ (jperV WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1906. United States National Museum, • Under direction of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, October 1, 1905. Sir : I have the honor to submit herewith a report upon the present condition of the United States National Museum, and upon the work accomplished in its various departments during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905. Very respectfully, Richard Rathbun, Assistant Secretary, in charge of the U. S. National Museum. Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. CONTENTS. Page. Letter of Transmittal iii Contents v General Considerations. As a museum of record 4 As a museum of research 5 As an educational museum. 6 The new museum building 6 Urgent needs of the museum 8 Some important events of the year 9 Su.mmary of the Operations of the Year. Appropriations and expenditures 11 Buildings 12 Additions to the collections 15 General work upon the collections 30 The exliibition collections 34 Researches 37 E.xplorations 47 Distribution and exchange of specimens 50 Visitors . 51 Lectures and meetings ,53 Correspondence and documents 54 Publications • 54 Library 58 Photography 58 Cooperation of the Executive Departments 59 Expositions 59 International Congresses ~ 60 Organization and staff 62 The Museum staff 63 List of accessions 67 List of publications Ill V REPORT UPON THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905. By Richard Rathbun, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the U. S. National Museum. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. The establishment of a museum for this Government, which was intended to embrace all of the national collections, was provided for in the act of Congress of August 10, 1846, founding the Smithsonian Institution, as follows: "Whenever suitable arrangements can be made from time to time for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States, which may be in the city of Washington, in whosoever custody they may be, shall be delivered to such persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive them, and shall be so arranged and classified in the building erected for the Institution as best to facilitate the examination and study of them; and whenever new specimens in natural history, geologj-, or mineralogy" are obtained for the museum of the Institution, by exchanges of duplicate specmiens, which the Regents may in their discretion make, or by donation, which they may receive, or otherwise, the Regents shall cause such new specimens to be appropriately classed and arranged. The Smithsonian fund at the time it was turned over to the United States in 1838 amounted to about S515,000, but by 1846 interest had accrued to the extent of about S240,000 additional. The latter sum was made immediately available for the construction of a building and for other purposes incidental to the fiist equipment of the Insti- tution, but the principal, invested by the Government, was to remain intact, only the interest therefrom to be applied to future operations. For the period in question this endowment was, with perhaps one or two exceptions, larger than that of any other learned establishment in America, and Congress was led to believe that the income would be sufficient to meet all the requirements it had imposed. Events which soon followed showed, however, that this view was not justified, and in 1857, when the completion of the Smithsonian building rendered possible the transfer of the specimens from the Patent Office, Congress found it necessary to aid the Insti- 1 2 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1905. tution by small appropriations for constructing cases and caring for the collections, and some twenty years later the entire expense on this account was assumed by the Government. )t should be explained, however, that beginning as early as 1850 important materials for a museum were being assembled by the Smithsonian Institution, at its own cost, through the activities of its assistant secretary, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, whose personal bent was toward the collection and study of natural history specimens. With the approval of Secretary Henry he put into operation exten- sive plans for accomplishing this purpose, which were soon yielding abundant returns. Professor Baird's own vacations were spent in field work. Officers of the Army and Navy and of other branches of the Government service, fishermen, fur traders, private explorers, and such powerful organizations as the Hudson's Bay Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company were enlisted in the work and rendered valuable assistance. The influence exerted by these beginnings has, moreover, been lasting and widespread, as shown in the extensive natural history operations of subsequent national and State surveys, the organization of the Bureau of Fisheries and Bureau of Ethnology, and the support given to scientific collecting by many other bureaus of the Government. The discussion of plans for the organization of the Smithsonian Institution, which devolved upon the first Board of Regents, led, in January, 1847, to the unanimous adoption of the following resolu- tion expressing approval of the museum feature as one of its impor- tant functions: Resolved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress estabHshing the Institution, and in accordance with tlie design of Mr. Smithson, as expressed in his will, that one of the prin- cipal modes of executing the act and the trust is the accumulation of collections of speci- mens and objects of natural history and of elegant art, and the gradual formation of a library of valuable works pertaining to all departments of human knowledge, to the end that a copious storehouse of materials of science, literature, and art may be provided, which shall excite and diffuse the love of learning among men, and shall assist the original investiga- tions and efl'orts of those who may devote themselves to the pui'suit of any branch of iv^_:r!odgc. - ' . ..' In 1879, when most of the existing Government surveys, whose work included the collecting of specimens in the field, had been estab- lished, Congress deemed it important to practically reenforce the provisions of the act founding the Institution, in order that there might be no doubt as to the proper disposition of the material derived from these sources, by the following item in the sundry civil appro- priation act for 1880: AU collections of rocks, minerals, soils, fossils, and objects of natural history, archeology, and ethnology, made by the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological Survey, or by any other parties for the Government of the United States, when no longer needed for investi- gations in progress shall be deposited in the National Museum. REPOKT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 6 Although the name "National Museum" was sometimes used in the earlier reports of the Smithsonian Institution, it did not appear in any of the laws of Congress, until 1875. Its general emplojniient may be said to date from the time of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, the first exposition in this country in which the Government participated, and the first to make known to vast num- bers of the people of the United States the existence of national col- lections at Washington, as well as new methods of installing and exhibiting museum materials, differing radically from the older cabinets of college or local museums, which had prevailed up to that period. After its close the Government exhibits brought back to Washington, together with the extensive gifts made to the United States by private persons and foreign governments, rendered neces- sary the early erection of a new and separate building, devoted entirely to museum purposes. The scope of the National Museum as defined by law comprises practically all branches of science and of the arts which admit of museum treatment. With exceedingly limited means for making purchases, and therefore almost entirely dependent as to the char- acter of its collections upon Government explorations, personal dona- tions, and exchanges, its different departments have had a very unequal growth. The subjects best represented are ethnology and archeology, geolog}", zoology, and bot-any. A fair beginning has been made in the exceedingly important branches of the industrial arts and American history, and scarcely more is required to place these two departments on a proper basis than sufficient room to dis- play the necessary collections, which are certain to be received, in greater part through gratuitous contributions, when it is known that the Museum is prepared to care for them. In the department of the fine arts the collection is still very small, but the subject is one which must sooner or later receive earnest consideration by the Government. The specimens in all branches are classified in two series—one, generally comprising the bulk of the material, being arranged for the purposes of scientific research and reference in laboratories and storerooms; the other, selected with regard to its general educa- tional value and public interest, and accompanied by descriptive labels, being displayed in glass-covered cases in the public halls. The duplicate specimens not required for exchanges are made up into sets for distribution to schools and colleges, as opportunity offers. Papers descriptive of the collections, both technical and semipopular, are published for gratuitous circulation to the extent of three or more volumes yearly, and, finally, the Museum has come to be regarded as a bureau of information in respect to all subjects 4 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1905.