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^  [[Curators Report 1889

Report on the Section of Transportation and Engineering in the U.S. National Museum, 1889. By J. Elfreth Watkins, Curator.]]

[[circled]] file [[/circled]] 

[[stamped][ EXAMINED BY MR. RATHELIN MARCH 1913 [[/stamped]]

The routine work in the Section of Transportation and Engineering during the fiscal year 1888-1889, was interrupted by my absence from the Museum during almost the whole month of July, at the Ohio Valley Centennial Exhibition, at Cincinnati, where several series of models, photographs and drawings were placed upon exhibition, to illustrate the successive stages in the development of the art of transportation, from aboriginal times to the present era of the steamship and the locomotive.

It is believed that this was the first attempt in the history of expositions, to present an object lesson of the development, step by step, of our great systems of transportation.

While this first effort must be regarded as an experiment, it is gratifying to know that it met the approval of those interested in preserving the history of engineering science. This is particularly true of the objects in the fourth series alluded to below.