88 T H E NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



restoration of order and the entire reorganization of the collec- 

 tions. One of the first acts will be to assemble the recent do- 

 nations of paintings, excepting those of Mr. Freer, together 

 with a few from the older collections and several interesting 

 loans. To an account of this worthy nucleus the following 

 pages are entirely restricted. 



THE HARRIET LANE JOHNSTON COLLECTION 



Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston, the niece of James Buchanan, 

 who accompanied him when minister abroad and who was 

 mistress of the White House during his term as President, had 

 assembled at her home in Washington some important works 

 of art, including a number of paintings by distinguished mas- 

 ters, and numerous articles of historical interest and value. 

 Upon her decease on July 3, 1903, it was found that she had 

 bequeathed this entire collection to the Corcoran Gallery of Art 

 under certain specified conditions and subject to the provision 

 "that in the event that the Government of the United States 

 shall establish in the city of Washington a national art gallery 

 that the said articles shall, upon the establishment of said na- 

 tional art gallery, be, by the said trustees of the Corcoran Gal- 

 lery of Art and their successors, delivered to the said national 

 art gallery, and upon such delivery shall become the absolute 

 property of the said national art gallery established by the 

 United States." 



The conditions were of such a character as to cause the Cor- 

 coran Gallery to decline the bequest. From what has subse- 

 quently been learned Mrs. Johnston seems not to have been 

 aware that the Smithsonian Institution had been named as the 

 depository for the objects of art belonging to the nation, pos- 

 sibly from the fact that it had never been formally designated 

 as the National Gallery of Art. 



The executors of the will, although desiring to carry out its 

 intent and render possible the maintenance of the collection in 

 its integrity in Washington, felt themselves without authority 

 to award it to the Smithsonian Institution under the circum- 

 stances, and the Congress then in session (1903-4) was too near 



