PROMOTION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 59 



the most prominent objects exhibited in the National Museum, may 

 be described, as a Continental uniform of dark blue coat with buff 

 facings, and waistcoat and knee breeches of buff cloth. That it is the 

 identical suit worn on the occasion when Washington surrendered his 

 commission in the Army was not claimed by the donor, Thomas Law, 

 a member of the Washington family. 



Soliciting of specimens. — Active measures were taken by the Insti- 

 tute for obtaining specimens for the museum and botanic garden, 

 and no channel which promised gratuitous contributions was neg- 

 lected. In March, 1826, a committee waited on the heads of the 

 Federal departments in Washington and requested them to solicit 

 of their correspondents all objects of natural history that they might 

 deem interesting. The following letter, addressed to the officers of 

 the Medical Department of the Army by Surg. Gen. Joseph Lovell on 

 April 29, 1S26, shows how cordially this request was complied with : 



Sir: I am directed by the Secretary of War to state that, on the application 

 of a committee of the Columbian Institute, you are requested to forward 

 through this office specimens of seeds, plants, minerals, fossils, or whatever 

 may be deemed useful and interesting, for preservation in the cabinet of said 

 institution ; and also to transmit such remarks relative to the habits, localities 

 and history of the several specimens as may be thought necessary to a scientific 

 classification of them. 



Under date of October 1, 1827, a circular of instructions for col- 

 lecting and preserving animal, vegetable and mineral specimens, 

 t; derived from the most approved sources," prepared by Dr. Alex. 

 McWilliams and Rev. James M. Staughton, was issued, being printed 

 on three pages of foolscap size. It gave information respecting the 

 objects of, and the contributions desired by, the Institute, and covered 

 the subjects of minerals, plants and seeds, insects, shells, fishes, birds 

 and quadrupeds. Copies of this circular were transmitted to many 

 individuals, and to each Senator and Representative in Congress, 

 with a request that, if the design were approved, they be forwarded 

 to such gentlemen in each State or district as would be likely to 

 promote it; and also by the Secretary of State to each of the diplo- 

 matic and commercial agents of the United States abroad, by the 

 Secretary of the Treasury to each custom house and land office, by 

 the Secretary of War to each military post or station, by the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy to each ship in commission, and by the Postmaster 

 General to various post offices in different parts of the Union. 



Other early collections in Washington.— -C. Boyle, a painter from 

 Baltimore, who made use of the studio on Pennsylvania Avenue near 

 Sixth Street which had been occupied by Gilbert Stuart from 1803 to 

 1805, is said to have assembled there a small museum of natural 

 history, but no more than the fact of its existence has come down 

 to us. It was mentioned in the National Intelligencer for March 7. 

 1811, and by Warden in 181G, the latter also referring to a small col- 

 6343°— 17 5 



