8 KEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914, 



The Congress which passed the act of foundation enumerated as 

 within the scope of the Museum " all objects of art and of foreign 

 and curious research and all objects of natural history, plants, and 

 geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United 

 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 Eegents 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 formu- 

 lating 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 ]\Iuseum: 



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

 little discretion in regard to the extent of accommodations to be 

 provided, your committee recommend that there be included in the 

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

 destined for the Institution. * * * 



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

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

 ethnological portion, including 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 skulls, skeletons, portraitSj 

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

 of man. * * * In this connexion your committee recommend the 

 passage of resolutions asking the cooperation of certain public func- 

 tionaries 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 

 A'arious 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 



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

 Congress, the use of the word " charter " in this connection was not correct. 



