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2 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1906. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
The inception and history of the Museum have often been dis- 
cussed in the opening pages of the annual report. Congress, in 
the act of August 10, 1846, founding the Smithsonian Institution, 
recognized that an opportunity was afforded, in carrying out the 
large-minded design of Smithson, to provide for the custody of the 
museum of the nation. To this new establishment was therefore 
intrusted the care of the national collections, a course that time has 
fully justified. 
In the beginning the cost of maintaining the museum side of the 
Institution’s work was wholly paid from the Smithsonian income; 
then for a number of years the Government bore a share, and during 
the past three decades Congress has voted sufficient funds to cover the 
expenses of the museum, thus furthering one of the primary means 
**for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men” without 
encroaching upon the resources of the Institution. 
The museum idea was inherent in the establishment of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, which in its turn was based upon a ten years’ dis- 
cussion in Congress and the advice of the most distinguished scientific 
men, educators, and intellectual leaders of the nation of seventy years 
ago. It is interesting to note how broad and comprehensive were the 
views which actuated our lawmakers in determining the scope of the 
Museum, a fact especially remarkable when it is recalled that at that 
date no museum of considerable size existed in the United States, and 
the museums of England and of the continent of Europe were still to 
a large extent without a developed plan, although containing many 
rich collections. 
The Congress which passed the act of foundation enumerated as 
within the scope of the Museum ‘‘all objects of art and of foreign 
and curious research and all objects of natural history, plants, and 
geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United 
States,” thus stamping the Museum at the very outset as one of the 
widest range and at the same time as the Museum of the United 
States. It was also fully appreciated that additions would be neces- 
sary to the collections then in existence, and provision was made for 
their increase by the exchange of duplicate specimens, by donations 
and by other means. 
If the wisdom of Congress in so fully providing for a museum in 
the Smithsonian law challenges attention, the interpretation put upon 
this law by the Board of Regents within less than six months from the 
passage of the act can not but command admiration. In the early part 
of September, 1846, the Regents took steps toward formulating a plan 
of operations. The report of the committee appointed for this pur- 
