12 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



Charles B. King and others, had been deposited with the Insti- 

 tute by the Secretary of War in 1841. The catalogues also 

 enumerate about thirty-five busts, models, etc., a few in marble, 

 the remainder in plaster. In the majority of cases the artists' 

 names were, unfortunately, not recorded, but there were a 

 marble head of Saint Cecilia by Thorwaldsen, a bust of Cuvier 

 by Louis Parfait Merlieux, and a number of pieces by Ferdi- 

 nand Pettrich and Clark Mills, besides several antiques. 



Among the objects of the Smithsonian Institution, as defined 

 by the act of establishment by Congress in 1846, was the forma- 

 tion of a museum, a gallery of art and a library. That the 

 museum, including the gallery of art, was intended to be com- 

 prehensive in scope and national in character is evident from 

 the wording of the law, which directed the erection of a building 

 with suitable rooms and halls for the reception and arrange- 

 ment on a liberal scale, among other things, of specimens of 

 natural history and a gallery of art, and the transfer to this 

 building of all objects of art, of foreign and curious research 

 and of natural history, belonging to the United States. 



The Board of Regents, holding their first meeting in Septem- 

 ber, 1846, adopted in January following a general programme 

 of operations, in which four main branches were recognized as 

 appropriate to the classification of the museum, namely, natural 

 history; ethnology and archeology; the appHed arts and 

 sciences; and the fine arts. 



The division last named was to include paintings, sculpture, 

 engravings and architectural designs, and provide studios for 

 artists. Realizing that the collection of paintings and sculp- 

 ture would accumulate slowly, it was proposed to assemble loan 

 collections during the winter season while Congress was in 

 session, and for the furtherance of this project the cooperation 

 of art associations was to be solicited. After the lapse of sixty 

 years it is impossible to conceive of a wiser or more effective 

 fundamental scheme, the unification under one administrative 

 body of practically all the functions proper to the museum of a 

 great nation, thereby forestalling dupUcation, overlapping and 

 the waste of pubUc funds. 



The Government began sending out surveying expeditions 

 early in the last century, and from these sources much material 



