INTRODUCTION 



As far back as sixty-three years ago the Congress of the 

 United States directed the formation of a gallery of art for the 

 nation, and even at a somewhat earlier date it gave encourage- 

 ment to such a project by granting an act of incorporation to 

 a private society, whose collections were eventually to be ceded 

 to the United States. The assembling of art objects under the 

 chartered association began in 1840, and under the specific pro- 

 vision for a gallery in 1849. The two collections were united 

 in 1862, since which time the subject of art as a museum feature 

 under the Government has continued in charge of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, in accordance with the terms of its establish- 

 ment in 1846. 



However slow may have been its progress in this field, how- 

 ever lacking in esthetic merit the majority of its acquisitions, 

 the Institution fulfilled its obligations to provide a place for the 

 art collections of the nation, has made such efforts as were 

 possible within its limited means and opportunities to gather 

 suitable material, and, what is more important, has kept the 

 subject alive in the expectation of ultimately awakening an 

 interest that would justify its course and realize the intent of 

 Congress. The older readers of the annual reports of the 

 Institution will recall the prominence given to art in the plan 

 of organization and the constant reminder of the existence of 

 an art department, while in recent years the public has found 

 no more attractive exhibits in the Museum halls than those 

 embracing the graphic arts, ceramics, metal and glass work, 

 lacquers and art fabrics. The surprise so generally expressed 

 in regard to a recent court decree, affirming the existence in 

 connection with the Institution of a gallery of art entitled to 

 be called national must, therefore, be ascribed to the fact that 

 the collection has contained but few worthy paintings and 

 works of sculpture, the commonly recognized essentials of an 



establishment of that character. 



9 



