[excerpt] A MUSEUM curator of ten has cause to lament the inelasticity of brick and mortar. His collections increase in size, but his gallery walls "stay put" Sometimes, however, a fortunate chance permits one to utilize odds and ends of space between walls, with the happiest of results. When it became necessary to secure more room for the Near Eastern collections of the Museum, unused space of this kind was found between the galleries on the second floor of Addition E and the upper part of the Lecture Hall to the west. To be sure, the area was not extensive, but it made possible the addition of three small galleries to the series of Near Eastern rooms, and afforded space much needed for the expansion of the collection of Indian art. Credit for the ingenious utilization of this space should go to Durr Friedley, Acting Curator of the Department of Decorative Arts when the plans were authorized last summer, and now engaged in war service. Some modifications of Mr. Friedley's original scheme for the small galleries opening out of the Indian temple room proved necessary in the course of the work, but in general his original plans have been closely followed. The galleries are now open to the public.

These new rooms, together with the large gallery, II E 13, in the regular sequence of rooms, and the alcove opening out of II E I2, are devoted to the exhibition of Indian art. This section of the Near Eastern collection, although of comparatively recent development, has now attained considerable importance, particularly in the fields of jewelry and miniatures. The sculpture collection has been recently strengthened by the purchase of two remarkable examples of early Indian stone carving. Two fine pieces of mediaeval Indian sculpture are exhibited as loans through the kindness of Miss Cora Timken. Indian wood carving is splendidly represented by the beautiful temple interior presented by Robert W. de Forest and Lockwood de Forest. A representative group of Indian metalwork, dating from the seventeenth century to modern times, has been generously lent by Lockwood de Forest. The Museum collection of Indian textiles contains many fine pieces; two large Indian carpets, included in the recent gift of the Morgan Collection, are magnificent specimens of their kind.

The visitor will probably enter the new galleries through the door in the west wall of 11 E 13. A small vestibule leads to the domed room from a mediaeval Indian temple. On the left is a small gallery where examples of the early periods of Indian sculpture are exhibited. On the right is a corridor, lined with wall cases, containing the collection of Indian and Thibetan jewelry, recently obtained for the Museum in India by Lockwood de Forest. This gallery opens into the room devoted to the exhibition of Indian miniatures. From this room the visitor passes out into II E 12, in which is shown Persian and Asia M nor art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.