Viewing page 51 of 100

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the west hall, exposed to the dust and to breakage from the work going on about them. If convenient at an early date, I would recommend that the pottery now stored on top of the case along the west wall of this room be removed, in order that the space they now occupy may be used for jars. The additional floor space that would be gained by removing the terra cotta font, and two small cases to the south of the center of this hall, could also be used to good advantage for the materials properly belonging to this department.

At Inauguration time great crowds of people are accustomed to visit the Smithsonian building, and the cloth door now shutting off the west hall from the bird hall is insufficient to protect the former, and I would recommend that a substantial wooden door with a good lock be supplied.

The model of the Sigsbee sounding machine exhibited at London in 1883, was somewhat injured by the usage it received there, and should be repaired and placed in a glass case for exhibition in connection with the other sounding apparatus.