8 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 



States/' thus stamping the Museum at the very outset as one of the 

 widest range and at the same time as the Museum of the United 

 States. It was also fully appreciated that additions would be neces- 

 sary to the collections then in existence, and provision was made for 

 their increase by the exchange of duplicate specimens, by donations, 

 and by other means. 



If the wisdom of Congress in so fully providing for a museum in 

 the Smithsonian law challenges attention, the interpretation put upon 

 this law by the Board of Regents within less than six months from 

 the passage of the act can not but command admiration. In the 

 early part of September, 1846, the Regents took steps toward formulat- 

 ing a plan of operations. The report of the committee appointed 

 for this purpose, submitted in December and January following, 

 shows a thorough consideration of the subject in both the spirit and 

 letter of the law. It would seem not out of place to cite here the 

 first pronouncement of the board with reference to the character of 

 the Museum: 



"In obedience to the requirements of the charter,^ which leaves 

 little discretion in regard to the extent of accommodations to be pro- 

 vided, your committee recommend that there be included in the 

 building a museum of Rberal size, fitted up to receive the collections 

 destined for the Institution, * * * 



"As important as the cabmets of natural history by the charter 

 required to be included in the Museum, your committee regard its 

 ethnological portion, mcluding all collections that may supply items 

 in the physical history of our species, and illustrate the manners, 

 customs, religions, and progressive advance of the various nations 

 of the world; as, for example, collections of skuUs, skeletons, por- 

 traits, dresses, implements, weapons, idols, antiquities, of the various 

 races of man. * * * jjj tj-iis connexion, your committee recom- 

 mend the passage of resolutions asking the cooperation of certain 

 public functionaries, and of the public generally, in furtherance of 

 the above objects. 



"Your committee are further of opinion that in the Museum, if 

 the funds of the Institution permit, might judiciously be included 

 various series of models illustrating the progress of some of the most 

 useful inventions; such, for example, as the steam engine from its 

 earliest and rudest form to its present most improved state; but this 

 they propose only so far as it may not encroach on groimd already 

 covered by the numerous models ha the Patent Office. 



"Specimens of staple materials, of their gradual manufacture, and 

 of the finished product of manufactures and the arts may also, your 



^ Since the Institution was not chartered in a legal sense, but established by Con- 

 gress, the use of the word "chaiter" in this connection was not correct. 



