THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 17 



exhibit the natural resources and industry of the country, or 

 present at one view the materials essential to a condition of 

 high civilization which exists in the different States of the 

 American Union ; to show the various processes of manufacture 

 which have been adopted by us, as well as those used in other 

 countries; in short, to form a great educational establishment, 

 by means of which the inhabitants of our own country as well 

 as those of foreign lands who visit our shores may be informed 

 as to the means which exist in the United States for the enjoy- 

 ment of human life in the present and their improvement in 

 the future. The Smithsonian Institution, on the other hand, 

 does not offer the results of its operations to the physical eye, 

 but presents them to the mind in the form of new discoveries, 

 derived from new investigations and an extended exchange of 

 new ideas with all parts of the world." 



At the beginning of 1865 a disastrous fire burned out the large 

 upper hall and the main towers of the Smithsonian building, 

 destroying the collection of Indian paintings and much other 

 art material. This calamity led to the scattering for over 

 thirty years of most of what remained, a part of the collection, 

 mainly prints, being deposited in the Library of Congress and 

 a part in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. 



The next step in the development of the art side of the Museum 

 was the organization of the division of arts and crafts, the im- 

 portance of which was pointed out in the early programme of 

 the Board of Regents. The opportunity was afforded by the 

 Centennial Exhibition of 1876, at which the National Museum 

 was so conspicuously represented as to attract wide attention, 

 and become the recipient of contributions from both foreign 

 and domestic exhibitors to the extent of a hundred carloads, in 

 which the subjects above mentioned figured extensively. The 

 character and value of this large addition led Congress to 

 authorize the erection of the Museum building, which has been 

 occupied since 1881. This structure, however, proved inade- 

 quate for even the immediate needs of the collections, and it soon 

 became necessary to transfer to storage a large proportion of 

 the material from Philadelphia. The objects relating to several 

 subjects were retained on display and these exhibits have since 

 been increased to a greater or less extent. Although mainly 



