SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

2. 6. 2.

S. P. LANGLEY, Secretary.
G. BROWN GOODE, Assistant Secretary.

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY

IN CHARGE OF U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM

Washington,

February 6, 1895.

Professor O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Connecticut.

Dear Professor Marsh:-

I am mortified that your letter of January 25 should have remained unattended to so long, but I have been shut up in the house for some days by an attack of the grippe and everything has waited.

Let me ask about the Wells Collection, whether it is your idea that the specimens should be sent here or retained in New Haven. If they can be sent here and made available at once for exhibition purposes, we should be very much disposed to take them, since we are making a special effort to produce a good effect in the exhibition hall devoted to fossils.

We shall have something much better to show you when you come down in the spring. Your skeleton pictures will all be stretched and re-hung, and the whole hall will be in a more presentable condition than ever before.

3. 14. 69.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY

S. P. LANGLEY, Secretary.

Washington, March 14, 1895.

Professor O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Connecticut.

Dear Professor Marsh:-

I fear that you will think I am a very unprompted and unsatisfactory correspondent, but I have been shut up in the house by an attack of the grippe until within a day or two, and have been unable to attend to the matter of the Wells Collection.

We should like very much to have this collection, but we are so cramped financially, that I do not see how just at present anything can be done. If the collection should remain unsold three months hence, at the end of the present fiscal year, I think it more than probable that we might arrange to take it, but I dare not draw upon our reserve fund to that extent just at present.

11. GIVE A LIST OF THE NEW GENERA AND SUBGENERA, SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES DESCRIBED IN THE PAPERS REFERRED TO IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY (e.g., PLAGIOGRAMMUS HOPKINSII, T.H.BEAN. MONTEREY, CAL., PROC. U.S.NAT.MUS., XVI, NO. 967, FEB. 10, 1893, p. 699, FIG. 15). IF THE TYPE SPECIMEN IS NOT IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, THAT FACT SHOULD BE INDICATED BY THE USE OF AN ASTERISK.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

7-17-(1)

S. P. LANGLEY, Secretary.

OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY

Washington, July 17, 1895.

Professor O. C. Marsh,

New Haven, Connecticut.

Dear Professor Marsh:-

In reply to your letter of July 12, asking that Mr. Hugh Gibb be placed upon the roll of the National Museum at seventy dollars per month for the present fiscal year, to continue the work of preparing fossils for the National Museum, I would say that I recognize the importance of your services in caring for, and in preparing for study and exhibition the collections of vertebrate fossils, the property of the United States, which have been obtained under your direction while connected with the Geological Survey, and which are in your custody as honorary Curator of fossil vertebrates in this Museum, and which are to be transferred to the National Museum as soon as you have finished your studies upon them.

I therefore have made arrangements for Mr. Gibb to be placed upon the roll as you request.

Prof. O. C. M.-2-

I should be very glad if you could find it possible to have prepared during the year a certain amount of material for immediate use in the exhibition series in Washington. We have now available for the reception of such material a space occupied by four wall cases, eight feet eight inches in length, nine feet in height, and three feet in depth, as well as a considerable amount of space for objects on top of the cases. We have, as you know, given a great deal of attention during the last year to the installation of the new hall for fossils, and have placed upon the walls the restorations of large vertebrates prepared under your direction. The hall still seems quite empty, and it is for this reason that I should like to have some more material sent on from New Haven.

I would add that the reduction of our appropriations some three years ago has reduced our working force considerably, and that it is necessary that we should make as much show as possible as a result of the work each year of the force of preparators employed. The putting of Mr. Gibb upon the roll will cut off some other preparator, the result of whose work would be manifest in the Museum, and it is for this reason too that I ask that if possible there should

Prof. O. C. M.-3-

be some immediate showing as a result of his employment.

I do not of course expect that his whole time should be devoted to this
work, but simply ask that in connection with the other duties which he per-
forms under your direction as Curator, something of this kind should be effected

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

UNDER DIRECTION OF

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WASHINGTON U. S. A. December 17, 1895.

Dear Sir:-

In the Smithsonian Half-Century Book, to be published under
the Smithsonian Institution, a detailed account will be given of the
work which has been accomplished during that time by the Institution,
or under its auspices, as well as by the various bureaus in its charge
since 1846.

In connection with the portion of the book relating to Museum
work, I am anxious to include a statement exactly, or (if that is not
possible), approximately, showing the number of species, represented by
types, in each department. These should be enumerated, so far as may
be possible, under the titles of the works in which they are described.

Apart from this, it is proposed to publish at an early day a
series of full catalogues of the type specimens in the several depart-
ments of the Museum. It is hoped that, in making up the preliminary
census, already alluded to, the preparation of complete catalogues of
type specimens will be borne in mind.

At this time I will only ask that you will let me have, at
your earliest convenience, the statement called for in the second para-
graph, i.e. a list showing the number of species, represented by types,

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM

UNDER DIRECTION OF

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

WASHINGTON U. S. A.

in your department, and classified, so far as may be possible, under
the titles of the works in which they are described.

Professor O. C. Marsh,

Honorary Curator, Department of Vertebrate Fossils,

U. S. National Museum.