REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE
of the
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.
Upon the organization of the Board of Management of the Government
Exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, the sum of
$16,500 (#) and a floor space amounting to 4,067 square feet were allotted to
the Department of the Interior. This space was near the center of the
Government building, bounded on three sides by main aisles, and abutting at
the one corner upon the grand central rotunda. In most respects it was one
of the best spaces in the building, and one in which the exhibits could be
conspicuously and advantageously placed.
The Bureaus of the Department which were represented in the exhibit
were as follows:
The Patent Office,
The General Land Office,
The Bureau of Indian Affairs,
The Bureau of Education,
The Geological Survey,
For each of these bureaus a separate report is appended.
In certain respects the work of preparation for the Exposition at
Omaha overlapped the closing of the Department's exhibit at the Tennessee
Centennial Exposition, held at Nashville in 1897. A large part of the
material exhibited at Nashville was there packed for storage and was shipped
to Omaha without re-opening, a procedure which economized both expense and
labor. One result of this plan was a consolidation of freight charges,
which, at previous expositions, have been separately assessed upon the
allotments of the several bureaus, but which now appear under the heading of
expenditures on account of the Department in general. To segregate the
stored exhibits and ship on separate bills of lading would have entailed upon
the officers of the Department a useless labor, with no economy of cost; and
hence the statement of expenses indicates an increase upon the side of the
general fund and a lessening of the accounts of the Bureaus.
The following expenses were charged to the account or the Department
as a unit:
Labor and services,--------------------------------$ 709.55
Travel and subsistence,---------------------------- 457.20
Freight, carage, expressage,----------------------- 1,211.37
Light and heat,------------------------------------ 67.52
Decorations,--------------------------------------- 50.00
Office expenses,----------------------------------- 47.00
Miscellaneous,------------------------------------- 182.20
$2,724.64
(#) See statement of re-apportionment and transfers of funds. The sum
total of all expenditures was as follows:
The Department,------------------------------------$2,724.64
Patent Office,------------------------------------- 2,769.23
Bureau of Indian Affairs,-------------------------- 1,006.35
The General Land Office,--------------------------- 507.50
The Bureau of Education,--------------------------- 2,592.53
The Geological Survey,----------------------------- 2,685.56
$12,685.81
Total allotment,----------------------------------$16,500.00
Expended,----------------------------------------- 12,285.81
Returned to common fund, (#)---------------------- 4,214.19
The unexpended surplus is due partly to economies resulting from the
Tennessee Centennial overlap, and partly to the fact that the space to be
filled at Omaha was relatively small, when compared with that covered at
other expositions.
F. W. CLARKE,
Representative, Department of the Interior.
Expenditures of the Department of the Interior, Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition, Omaha, 1898.
Services,-------------------------------------$1,115.52
Traveling expenses,--------------------------- 3,945.99
Freight, cartage, expressage, etc.,----------- 855.51
Contract or special services,----------------- 92.61
Specimens, apparatus, etc.,------------------- 691.50
Exhibition cases, frames, etc.,--------------- 3,419.33
Supplies,------------------------------------- 1,273.01
Decorations, partitions, etc.,---------------- 79.10
Heat, light and power,------------------------ 64.09
Office expenses,------------------------------ 363.70
Telegraphic service,-------------------------- 221.48
Photographs and photographic material,-------- 163.92
Total,----$12,285.81
(#) See statement of transfers of funds.
THE PATENT OFFICE.
The Committee appointed by the Honorable Commissioner of Patents to
prepare an exhibit of models, etc., for the Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition submit the following report:
The Patent Office exhibit embraced 472 original models of patents
representing various inventions, the same being classified as follows:
Models
Metal Working Machines,--------------------- 30
Brick Making Machines,---------------------- 7
Sewing Machines,---------------------------- 21
Telegraphy and telephony,------------------- 48
Surveying and Nautical Instruments,--------- 11
Fire Arms,---------------------------------- 58
Ordnance, Gun Carriages, etc.,-------------- 42
Air, Gas, and Steam Engines,---------------- 42
Printing Presses,--------------------------- 17
Agricultural Implements,-------------------- 66
Typewriting Machines,----------------------- 9
Excavating and Ditching Machines,----------- 22
Paper and pulp Machines,-------------------- 55
Knitting and Weaving,----------------------- 44
These models, though few in number, were exhibited as showing the
advance in various mechanical arts, and, to the extent, the encouragement
given to the inventive world by the American patent system, and its
beneficial results to the public at large.
This official exhibit was supplemented by loans from private
individuals throughout the country, to whose courtesy and interest the Office
is greatly indebted.
Notably among these were collections of Harvesting Machines, furnished
respectively by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company of Chicago, and the
Deering Harvester Company of the same place, both of which created marked
interest among the visiting public.
Mr. Dwight E. Tripp supplies an attractive exhibit of colored
photography produced by the McDonough process, together with a handsome
illuminated case for its exhibition, and the effect was both novel and
pleasing.
A very interesting collection of samples dyed with coal tar products
was furnished by Wm. J. Matheson & Co., of New York.
Samples of alcohol and whiskey, produced from calcium carbide, by Mr.
Herman L. Horstenstein, of Bellaire, Ohio, were sent by him and exhibited in
one of the cases.
Prof. Charles E. Munroe, of Columbia University, Washington, very
kindly loaned specimens of hard metal showing the remarkable effects produced
by the detonation thereon of high explosives, such as gun cotton, etc., the
same being accompanied by dummies illustrating the appearances of various
high explosives.
An exhibit of ancient and modern ploughs furnished by Messrs. Deere &
Company, of Mcline, Illinois, and arranged attractively, formed an important
feature of the display, and received special attention.
Two machines for baling cotton in cylindrical form were supplied by
the American Cotton Company of New York, and Mr. George A. Lowrt of Chicago,
and were exhibited as showing a new departure in baling cotton, for which
great advantages are claimed in the matter of compactness, ease of handling,
and economy of space.
The McKay Consolidated Lasting Machine Company of Boston, sent one of
their full-sized working machines, showing their latest invention in
automatically lasting boots and shoes, and this was a prominent feature of
the exhibit.
Three automatic musical instruments were supplied by the Regina Music
Box Company of Rahway, New Jersey, and gave much pleasure to visitors.
Mr. P. T. Dodge, President of the Mergenthaler Linotype Machinery
Company of New York, exhibited one of the Companys working machines with a
skilled operator to manipulate it, and this, when operated, was surrounded by
crowds of visitors.
Two arc lamps of the latest pattern were furnished by the
International Arc Lamp Company of New York.
All of these articles, generously loaned by their respective owners,
added greatly to the success of the Patent Office exhibit. It is safe to
assume that the display did much to increase the interest of the visiting
public, and to bring them into closer touch with the operations of the
Several Departments of the Government.
MALCOLM SEATON,
Chairman of Committee.
The following expenses were incurred on account of the Patent Office
exhibit:
Labor and services,---------------------------------$ 175.37
Travel and subsistence,----------------------------- 1,681.50
Electric lighting,---------------------------------- 17.82
Cases,---------------------------------------------- 545.80
Labels,--------------------------------------------- 142.83
Miscellaneous,-------------------------------------- 218.21
$2,769.23
GENERAL LAND OFFICE.
The importance of a Bureau as a part of the Government has no relation
to its value in an exposition display. An altogether insignificant office
may have great possibilities for exhibition purposes, while another of the
highest rank may have very little material to show. Historically and
actually, the general Land Office is one of the great Bureaus of our
Government, but to an exposition it can only contribute maps; and these,
being made mainly for one set of purposes, only in limited variety.
Accordingly, the exhibit at Omaha was small, and the aim of its organizer,
Mr. F. P. Metzger, was to make it locally interesting, and artistically
attractive. It consisted of a handsomely mahogany case, about 812 by 7 feet
and 8 feet high, upon whose sides four large maps, executed by hand, were
installed. These were, first, the Land Office map of the United States,
showing our successive accretions of territory; secondly, a map of Nebraska;
third, a copy of the original township plat of Omaha; and fourth, a facsimile
of the first land patent ever issued to a citizen of Nebraska, which covered,
as it happens, the site of the Exposition itself. These maps were
attractively presented, and received much attention. The total cost of the
exhibit was $507.50, exclusive of freight charges.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
The exhibit of this Bureau at Omaha covered about the same ground as
at Atlanta and Nashville. Indian Schools--day schools and boarding schools,
on and off reservations--furnished specimens of the work done by Indian
pupils in their class rooms and shops. A smaller number of schools were
represented than heretofore, so that the facilities and work might be more
fully seen.
In order to put appropriate decorative effects into the exhibit, both
to arrest the attention and announce the fact that Indian education was being
exploited, there was added to the work of the schools specimens of Indian
aboriginal work, plaques, pottery, blankets, sashes, baskets, stone pipes,
and rush matting. The good design and skillful workmanship displayed in such
articles showed the native ability as distinguished from the ability acquired
through the training of the schools, the fruitful soil in which seeds of
education are sown.
The unusually effective and artistic installation of the exhibit was
the work of Miss Alice C. Fletcher, whose aim was to make it so express these
two ideas that visitors could not fail to recognize the native capacity upon
which the Government bestows education according to our conceptions.
On the main aisle, at the two corners of the long narrow space
assigned to the Bureau, were life-size figures, in complete Indian costume,
of a Sioux warrior and a Sioux woman with her baby, kindly loaned by the
Smithsonian institution. Between them stood a small case of finest needle
work, and infants wardrobe, lace, made in the lace schools for Indian women,
loaned by Miss Sybil Carter, and drawn-work from California Indians. Looking
down to the opposite end of the space, a glimpse was had of charming color
effects in the cozy-corner, with its couches and cousine covered with Navajo
blankets, its Moqui draperies and plaques and its walls hung with pictures
above a dado of Chippewa rush mattings. Among the pictures, which were
mostly photographs of Indians and Indian school-life,were three "studies" in
oil, of Indian life, two heads,and a deserted medicine lodge, loaned by the
artists, Angel Decora, a young Winnepeg, whom is a pupil of Howard Pyle and
gave promise of unusual ability. Added to those characteristic decorations
were large and handsome basketollas from Arkansas, shapely vases of Pueblo
ware and a case containing baskets, pottery, articles made from red
pipe-stone, etc., while high over all hung a Chippewa bark canoe.
The main exhibit, of which this was the setting, consisted of samples
of the regular work of Indian pupils, such as would show the aim, scope, and
success of the Indian schools, both intellectually and industrially. The
training given in domestic arts and farm work could be indicated only by
photographs; but the trades were well represented. There was blacksmith and
wheelwright work, from a bolt to a farm wagon; woodwork, from sloyd to a
finely finished cabinet; leather, from the sewing together of two pieces to a
complete set of harness and well-made shoes; needlework, from patchwork and
darning to complete suits for men and women. Tinsmithing, printing, and
painting were also shown, and modeling in clay by little fingers in the
kindergartens.
A label on each article gave the name, age, and experience of the
Indian worker, and small framed placards gave brief sketches of the schools
represented, also general statistics as to the work of education and
civilization carried on by the Government among the Indians generally.
Four cases of school-room papers mounted on cardboard and set in
swinging frames, unglazed, covered the entire course of study in Indian
schools from kindergarten exercises and first attempts in English, to
geometry, physics, book-keeping, type-writing and stenography. There was
also a column of swinging frames, glazed filled with photographs giving
exterior and interior views of schools; also graphic statistics as the record
of returned students.
Two chairs invited weary visitors to linger beside a table upon which
were sets of floor plans and elevations of school buildings, albums of
photographs and files of monthly and weekly papers published and printed by
various schools.
The schools represented in the exhibit were- Non-reservation schools
at Genoa, Nebraska; Lawrence, Kansas, (Haskell Institute); Carlisle ,
Pennsylvania, and Carson, Nevada. Reservation boarding schools as follows:
Winnebago in Nebraska; Segar Colony and Riverside (Kiowa) in Oklahoma; Oneida
in Wisconsin; Crow Creek in South Dakota; and Hoopa Valley in California;
also day schools on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota,
and among the Mission Indians in California. The school at Phoenix, Arizona,
was also represented by a redwood cabinet and band stand model, included in
previous exhibits.
On the whole, this was the best presentation of Indian school yet made
at an Exposition and by far the best installation of material gathered.
The expenditures in behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs were as
follows:
Labor and services,-----------------------------$ 140.00
Travel and subsistence,------------------------- 248.89
Preparation of exhibits,------------------------ 268.14
Cases, frames, etc.,---------------------------- 141.70
Miscellaneous expenses,------------------------- 207.62
$1006.35
-o0o-
BUREAU OF EDUCATION
The prime purpose of the Bureau of Education is the collection and
diffusion of educational information, but it is also charged by Congress with
the administration of the schools of Alaska and with a limited supervision of
the expenditures for the land-grant colleges under the Morrill Act of 1890.
While the first of these is the most important and far-reaching, it is the
most difficult to show in an exhibit; the last, while important in itself, is
but a small part of the Bureau's work and does not require very extensive
illustration. The work which relates to Alaska has within it the germs of
wide development, but up to this time it cannot be said to be comparable in
extent or important with the educational systems of either of the States, or
with the other work of the Bureau itself. Nevertheless, the peculiar
conditions of education in that territory and its population by races so
entirely different in habits, customs, and dress from our own, make the
Alaskan side of the work peculiarly useful for exhibition purposes.
About half of the space allotted to the Bureau, therefore, was devoted
to material illustrating the conditions of life and of education in Alaska,
while the remaining half was nearly equally divided between the exhibits of
land-grant colleges and the statistical and other material intended to
"diffuse educational information" of a general character. The material of
the last class will be described first.
The most conspicuous statistical feature of the exhibit was a large
wall chart, four feet wide and ten feet high, on which was set forth the
progress of education in twenty years in the North Central division of the
United States. In a series of wing frames nearby were forty smaller charts
showing educational statistics of a miscellaneous character. These were all
done in bright colors with graphic diagrams in great variety so that the
striking appearance of the charts themselves might attract attention to the
statistics presented. Many of the charts were of special local interest,
though such as could not be easily prepared except in the Bureau of
Education. The local sheets were placed conspicuously, in order to strike
the attention of the visitor and lead him to examine the others. Two cases
mounted on the wall contained eight maps, which showed the distribution of
educational agencies and conditions in the United States. They were devoted
respectively to public schools, secondary schools; colleges and universities;
schools of medicine, of dentistry, of pharmacy; schools of theology and of
law; normal schools; public libraries; and illiteracy. The cases used for
these maps, as well as the maps themselves, were those used at the two
previous expositions and have been described in reports on the Exhibits of
the Bureau at the time.
The remaining wall space was occupied by pictures of historical
schools punishments and of school buildings. The first of series of these
comprised twenty water colors by Mr. Felix E. Mahoney, and illustrated
spanking, shaking, horsing, the Eton block, standing on one foot, the dunce
cap, the bastinado, etc. The other series were also in water color and were
executed by Mr. Spencer B. Nichols. They showed the development of school
architecture, and included the log cabin school, the interior of the same, a
prairie "dug-out", the little red school- house, a city school of thirty years
ago, and a modern school building.
A set of the publications of the Bureau was placed in a revolving book
case in a prominent place. They showed to casual visitors the variety and
extent of the work of the Bureau and were frequently used for reference.
The data intended to be read in the exhibit itself were supplemented
by a ten-page folder containing facts relating to education, which was
gratuitously distributed. The information in this folder was of the sort
most likely to be appreciated by general readers, and its distribution was,
in the opinion of the undersigned, the most substantial and satisfactory
innovation in this exhibit. Eleven thousand five hundred of the circulars
were distributed, and though a great many of them were wasted as might have
been expected, there was seen repeated evidence of valuable results from the
distribution.
The presentation of the land-grant colleges consisted of a collection
of the publications of those institutions and a series of cabinets containing
photographs, charts, and drawings illustrating them. There was twelve of the
cabinets and the colleges represented were:
The Universities of Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, and Wyoming; Maryland Agricultural College;
Massachusetts Agricultural College; Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Michigan Agricultural College; Montana Agricultural College; New Hampshire
College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts; Rutgers Scientific School;
Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas; Agricultural College of Utah;
Alabama Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students; Southern
University and Agricultural and Mechanical College; North Carolina
Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race; South Carolina
Agricultural College for Colored Students; Hampton Normal and Agricultural
Institute; Florida Normal and Industrial College.
As has been stated, the Alaskan collection occupied half of the space
of the exhibit; in attractiveness and in the number of visitors who were
impressed by it, it outweighed the other portions. The specimens were
collected by Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the General Agent of Education in Alaska,
and a large portion of them were his property, which he kindly loaned for the
display. A unique feature of the educational effort in behalf of Alaska is
the introduction of the reindeer, by means of which it is hoped to transform
the natives from a migratory to a pastoral people and thus make their
civilization and education easier. In illustration of this work a large
reindeer with a sled and lay figure of a native driver were mounted in the
most conspicuous position in the exhibit. Near it was a large case
containing six lay figures clothed with typical Alaskan costumes, made of
fur, fish skin, bird skins, buck- skin, etc. Another case showed a collection
of birds from Bering Sea, mounted on imitation rockwork. A miscellaneous
collection of ethnological specimens consisting of bows, arrows, harpoons,
implements, carvings, masks, fish-traps, boats, houses, etc., filled four
other cases and formed the body of the Alaskan exhibit. The formal work of
education was illustrated by photographs mounted in wing frames, of
buildings, classes and teachers, specimens of drawings, penmanship, etc., and
by statistics.
In the manner of installation it cannot be said that any especially
new devices were adopted. Furniture already on hand was used for the
statistical charts, the pictures of the Alaskan schools, and the photographs
of land-grant colleges. Three of the cases used for the Alaskan specimens
had been made for this occasion, being designed for the special purposes
which they served.
J. C. BOYKIN,
Special Agent.
The cost of the educational exhibit was as follows:
Labor and services,------------------------------$ 86.77
Travel and subsistence,-------------------------- 1,059.55
New exhibits,------------------------------------ 393.00
Cases and frames,-------------------------------- 678.76
Labels and printing,----------------------------- 168.40
Miscellaneous expenses,-------------------------- 206.25
$2,592.53
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
In the preparation for its exhibit for the Trans-Mississippi and
International Exposition, the Geological Survey was seriously hampered in two
ways. First, by lack of adequate space, and the irregular shape of the space
occupied; and second, by the want of suitable windows in which to display its
characteristic photographic transparencies. The latter defect was partly
obviated in the following manner: the Corner of the space was the corner of
two main aisles of the Government building, and here was erected an octagonal
tower of mahogany-finished wood, 7 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. The
lower half of this was finished in paneling, and the upper half, surmounted
by a solid pyramidal cap, was finished as a frame-work in which sixteen large
transparencies were set, as if forming the sides of a lantern. Within this
frame-work was placed a battery of electric lights, and in this way the
transparencies, which related to Yellowstone National Park, were fairly well
illuminated. The entire structure formed an essential feature of the exhibit
upon its decorative side. Flanking the tower were two large cases of
geological material from the Yellowstone Park, and behind it, supported by a
mahogany screen, was placed a large relief map of the Park, which was made
expressly for this occasion from data furnished by official surveys.
The remainder of the floor space was occupied by two large cases of
minerals, and one of fossils, selected rather for their popular interest than
for scientific purposes, and by a group of relief maps and geological models
which were chosen to illustrate the different forms and scales which are
given to this class of objects.
Fortunately, the Survey had a reasonably large amount of wall space at
its disposal, and upon this, other relief models, geological and
topographical maps, and illustrations form official publications were
displayed. This map exhibit, which formed a general background for the
entire display, was exceedingly varied and effective. One of the relief maps
thus shown represented the State of Nebraska, and this attracted a great deal
of attention. On the whole, however, the Survey exhibit, was one of the
smallest it has ever made.
On account of the Geological Survey exhibit, the following sums were
expended:
Labor and services,---------------------------$ 345.00
Travel and subsistence,----------------------- 295.17
Purchase and preparation of exhibits,--------- 2,159.80
Cases and frames,----------------------------- 211.20
Labels,--------------------------------------- 42.74
Electric lights, etc.,------------------------ 31.60
Miscellaneous expenses,----------------------- 300.05
$3,385.56