8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of the sections of the act of organization to partially introduce and 

 gradually develop the plan of active operations. 



In conformity with the act of Congress, a building has been erected 

 at a cost of upwards of $500,000. A library of 70,000 volumes has 

 been collected — principally of a class of books of the highest value, 

 consisting of the transactions and proceedings of learned societies — 

 with provision for its annual increase. The museum of the Government 

 has been enlarged to more than ten times its original size, a new depart- 

 ment having been added to it, viz, that of American Indian Ethnogra- 

 phy, which is more extended and varied in specimens than any other 

 ever established. A galler^^ of art has also been formed, which is es- 

 pecially rich in illustrations of industrial arts. In addition, a consider- 

 able proportion of the income of the Smithson fund has been expended 

 on the improvement of the grounds surrounding the building. In short, 

 every item of the original requirement of Congress has received due 

 attention. 



To effect these objects, and at the same time to develop the plan of 

 active operations, it became necessary to increase the income of the 

 fund, and this has been accomplished by the adoption of a system of rigid 

 economy and by a jndicious investment of the savings of the income. 



The original amount of the fund of $541,379 has been increased to 

 $71'4,000. Instead of forming the library by the purchase of books, it 

 has been created principally through exchanges, while the expense of 

 maintaining it has been obviated by depositing the books in the Library 

 of Congress. The care of the gronnds, which was a very expensive item, 

 has been assumed by the Government, and the cost of maintaining the 

 museum is now defrayed by an annual congressional appropriation. The 

 Institution having thus happily been relieved from the support of these 

 burdens, is now, at the end of the third decade of its history, in a con- 

 dition to fully realize the conception of its character as originally set 

 forth in the first annual report of the Secretary, while the success of the 

 plan of active operations has fully vindicated the propriety of its adop- 

 tion. Through its operation the Institution has advanced almost every 

 branch of science, and has made the name of Smithson known wherever 

 civilization exists. 



It has published twenty-one quarto volumes of transactions, entitled 

 " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," twelve octavo volumes of 

 " Miscellaneous Collections," and thirty octavo annual reports. These 

 publications have been presented to the principal libraries of the Old 

 and New World. It has especially advanced natural history and eth- 

 nology by the large number of specimens it has collected and distrib- 

 uted to foreign and domestic museums, and has been instrumental in 

 widely diffusing a knowledge of the progress of science by its system of 

 international exchanges between the United States and all other parts 

 of the world. The system of " active operations," while advancing the 

 interests of civilization generally, has been of importance to Washington 



