222 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



Long debates in Congress as to how it should be 

 utilized 1 followed the reception of the fund. Propositions 

 now seemingly grotesque, as well as others more rational, 

 were offered in the shape of bills to establish the Institu- 

 tion; long discussions followed, and it was not until 

 August, 1846, that an act was passed in which the desired 

 end was finally accomplished. In substance the act 

 created a Board of Regents, serving gratuitously; part 

 of them ex officio, part of them elected from among the 

 members of the House of Representatives and Senate, 

 and part private persons selected by Congress. A Secre- 

 tary to the Board, to be elected by them, was to be 

 executive officer in control of the work of the Institution 

 and discharge the duties of Librarian and of Keeper of 

 the Museum and with the consent of the Board employ 

 assistants. Furthermore the act provides that "all 

 objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and 

 all objects of natural history, plants, geological and 

 mineralogical specimens belonging or hereafter to belong 

 to the United States ... in whosoever custody they 

 may be" should be delivered to the Institution. A library 

 was also provided for and the Regents were authorized to 

 erect a suitable building for the purposes referred to in 

 the act. 



It will be noted that the Institution therefore is a 

 private trust, for which the United States Government 

 is trustee; and which in its turn, having proved its effi- 

 ciency and probity, has been made trustee for the United 

 States in charge of various scientific bureaus of the 

 Government, such as the National Museum, the Astro- 



1 See: The Smithsonian Institution, Documents relative to its 

 origin and history, edited by William Jones Rhees, Washington, 

 Government Printing Office, 1901, 2 Vols. 8. 



