REPOET OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 9 



conunittee think, be usefully introduced. This would supply oppor- 

 tunity to examine samples of the best manufactured articles our 

 coimtry affords, and to judge her gradual progress in arts and manu- 

 factures. * * * 



"The gallery of art, your committee tliink, should include both 

 paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and arcliitectural 

 designs; and it is desirable to have in connexion with it one or more 

 studios in which yoimg artists might copy without mterruption, 

 being admitted under such regulations as the board may prescribe. 

 Your committee also tliink that, as the collection of paintings and 

 sculpture will probably accumulate slowly, the room destined for a 

 gallery of art might properly and usefully meanwhile be occupied 

 during the sessions of Congress as an exliibition room for the works 

 of artists generally; and the extent and general usefulness of such an 

 exhibition might probably be increased if an arrangement could be 

 effected •wath the Academy of Design, the Arts Union, the Artists' 

 Fund Society, and other associations 'of similar character, so as to 

 concentrate at the metropohs for a certain portion of each winter the 

 best results of talent in the fuie arts." 



The important points in the foregoing report are (1) that it was 

 the opinion of the Regents that a museum was requisite imder the 

 law. Congress having left no discretion in the matter; (2) that eth- 

 nology and anthropology, though not specially named, were yet as 

 important subjects as natural history; (3) that the history of the 

 progress of useful inventions and the collection of the raw materials 

 and products of the manufactures and arts should also be provided 

 for; (4) for the gaUery of art the committee had models in existence, 

 and they proposed, pending the gathering of art collections, which 

 would of necessity be slow, to provide for loan exliibitions by cooper- 

 ating with art academies and societies. 



In the resolutions which were adopted upon the presentation of 

 the report, a museum was mentioned as ''one of the principal modes 

 of executing the act and trust." ^ The work was to go forward as the 

 funds permitted, and, as is well known, the maintenance of the 

 Aluseum and the Ubrary was long ago assiuned by Congress, the 

 Institution taking upon itself only so much of the necessary respon- 

 sibiHty for the administration of these and subsequent additions to 



' Resolved, That it is tlie intention of tlie act of Congress establishing the Insti- 

 tution, and in accordance with the design of Mr. Smithson, as expressed in his will, 

 that one of the pilncipal modes of executing the act and the tinast is the accumulation 

 of collections of specimens and objects of natural history and of elegant art, and the 

 gradual formation of a library of valuable works pertaining to all departments of 

 human knowledge, to the end that a copious storehouse of materials of science, litera- 

 ture, and art may be provided which shall excite and diffuse the love of learning 

 among men, and shall assist the original investigations and efforts of those who may 

 devote themselves to the pursuit of any branch of knowledge. 



