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Mr. G. Brown Goode
Assistant Director, National Museum

Dear Sir:- I have the honor to submit the following report of the department under my charge for the year 1884.

Respectfully R Hitchcock Acting Curator

Washington, January, 1885.

Textile Fibres and Fabrics.  This collection of textile fibres and fabrics placed under my charge in November, 1883, at which time there was a large accumulation of material in the museum pertaining to this department, which was stowed away in drawers and boxes.  Much of this material was of value, some of it worthless, and it required no little labor to classify and arrange it for display.  When this work was begun there was scarcely a single case of textiles on exhibition, properly arranged and labelled.  There are now not less than thirty sliding-screen cases completely filled with specimens, each one of which is labelled either with a permanent printed, or a temporary written label.  By far the greater number of these have been mounted during the year 1884.  In the beginning of  work in this department, many difficulties were encountered.  It was necessary, first of all, to devise a system of classifications for fibres and fabrics, which would be comprehensive.  As regards vegetable fibres, various systems were considered, in the hope that a scientific classification might be found which would serve well for industrial purposes; but a brief study of this subject clearly showed the impracticability of such a scheme. Turning then to purely artificial systems, it is not necessary to refer to the merits and demerits of those which have been proposed from time to time, but merely to say that the system which has seeemed best
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