THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 73 



the Institution was to develop according to the views of Con- 

 gress, that of its connection with art, has been allowed almost 

 entirely to lapse. It is now, however, understood that a very 

 valuable collection of art objects, representing, perhaps, over 

 $1,000,000 in value, has been left to the Smithsonian Institution; 

 and it is not an abstract question when we ask what these rela- 

 tions are to be. It seems to me that here again the fact of the 

 independence of the Smithsonian is of inestimable value in its 

 possible future usefulness. No possessor of a great private gal- 

 lery like either of the two or three in this country which are rising 

 now to almost national importance — no possessor of such a gal- 

 lery, knowing on the one hand what art is and on the other hand 

 what the relations of the Government to art have been in the 

 past, is likely to bequeath it to the nation without some guaranty, 

 not only for its care and maintenance, but for its judicious use in 

 the cause of national art itself. 



"The Smithsonian stands here in the position of a disinter- 

 ested and independent party, absolutely responsible, having a 

 permanency such as no individual or private corporation can 

 represent, and it might very well, it seems to me, in pursuit of 

 its proper objects accept a trust of this kind on the condition 

 either of seeing itself that the Government accepted it and pro- 

 vided for it in a proper way or handing it back to the heirs of 

 the conditional donor. It is perhaps not too much to say that 

 an important function of the Smithsonian which has lain long in 

 abeyance may yet be developed in this direction." 



In 1896 Secretary Langley reported to the Board of Regents 

 as follows : 



"I now desire to bring before the Regents a matter in which 

 they may see fit to express some opinion. 



"The fundamental act creating the Institution, in enumerat- 

 ing its functions, apparently considers it first as a kind of Gal- 

 lery of Art, and declares that all objects of art and of foreign 

 and curious research, the property of the United States, shall 

 be delivered to the Regents, and only after this adds that ob- 

 jects of natural history shall be so also. 



"The scientific side of the Institution's activities has been 

 in the past so much greater than its aesthetic that it is well to 

 recall the undoubted fact that it was intended by Congress to 



