REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 9 



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

 factures. * * * 



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

 paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural de- 

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

 studios in which young artists might copy without interruption, being 

 admitted under such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your 

 committee also think 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 exhibition 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 with 

 the Academy of Design, the Arts-Union, the Artists' Fund Society, 

 and other associations of similar character, so as to concentrate at the 

 metropolis for a certain portion of each winter the best results of 

 talent in the fine arts." 



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

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

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

 nology and antliropology, 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 gallery 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 exhibitions by coop- 

 erating 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 

 museum and the library was long ago assumed by Congress, the 

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

 bility for the administration of these and subsequent additions 

 to its activities as would weld them into a compact whole, which 

 together form a unique and notable agency for the increase and diffu- 



^Resolved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress establishing the Institution, 

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

 one of the principal modes of executing the act and the trust 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. 



