58 COLUMBIAN" INSTITUTE FOR THE 



Columbian Institute, where it had presumably been wrongly 

 identified. 



Most interesting, however, in the museum of the Columbian Insti- 

 tute, was a " suit of regimentals worn by Washington as commander 

 in chief of the army during the Revolutionary War," presented by 

 Thomas Law on May 5, 1828. A special case for it, costing $19, was 

 constructed in January, 1836. There are many references to this 

 suit in connection with the National Institute. David Cooke, writing 

 to his wife in 1842, after visiting the Patent Office, stated that " The 

 dress Gen. Washington had on when he resigned his commission to 

 Congress at Annapolis, in 1783, is here in a glass case just as it then 

 was — a pin substituted for a lost button." According to Hunter's 

 catalogue, " This [case 24] is the most interesting case in the whole 

 collection, and viewed by visitors with the utmost satisfaction. It 

 contains the coat worn by Washington when he resigned his commis- 

 sion at Annapolis. Buff cassimere vest and breeches. This is the 

 same suit in which Trumbull's picture in the Capitol represents 

 Washington to be attired." It is evident, however, on a comparison 

 of the suit of clothes with the figure in the painting that Trumbull 

 did not adhere strictly to the original. 



Disposition of the museum. — As elsewhere explained, in 1841, some 

 four years after its active operations had ceased, the collections and 

 library of the Columbian Institute were turned over to the National 

 Institution. No complete list of the material has been discovered, 

 and in the minutes of the National Institution the transfer mentions 

 simply " the books, minerals and works of art belonging to the late 

 Columbian Institute." The specimens were incorporated in the pri- 

 vate collections of the Institution, which, in accordance with the 

 terms of its charter from Congress, became the property of the 

 Government in 1862, and were thereupon transferred to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. It is now impossible to specifically identify any 

 of the natural history specimens which came from the Columbian 

 Institute, but objects in other groups are still readily distinguishable, 

 and directly connect the collections of the National Museum with 

 those of the Institute, indicating that the latter organization is to be 

 regarded as having started the nucleus of the present national col- 

 lections. 



The archeological objects of the Columbian Institute are probably 

 all now in the National Museum. The Ceres is not a statue or bust, 

 as mentioned above, but consists only of the head and neck, and the 

 same is true of the Bacchus. Among the remaining marbles, which 

 have for many years remained grouped together, though it would 

 not be safe to assume that all came from the Columbian Institute, 

 there are two complete small statues, three busts, two hands, and 

 several torsos. The suit of Washington, which has long been one of 



