JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 129 



Washington, February 5, 1877. 



A meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day at 7 o'clock 

 p. m., in the office of the Secretary. 



Present, Chief Justice Waite, Chancellor; Hon. T. W. Ferry, Hon. J. 

 TT. Stevenson, Hon. A. A. Sargent, Hon. H. Clymer, Hon. G. W. Me- 

 Crary, Hon. P. Parker, Hon. Geo. Bancroft, and the Secretary. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved* 



Mr. Bancroft, iVom the special committee appointed at the last meet- 

 mg, presented the following report of a memorial to be sent to Congress : 



MEMORIAL 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 



in Congress assembled. 



Tbe undersigned, Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, beg leave 

 respectfully to lay before you a question which has suddenly arisen, and 

 which can be solved only by your authority. 



In the year 1816, on the organization of the Smithsonian Institution 

 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men," Congress, to 

 the great relief of the Pateut-Office and other public buildings, devolved 

 upon the Regents of that Institution the custody of "all objects of art 

 and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, 

 plants, and geological and miueralogical specimens belonging or here- 

 after to beloug to the United States, which may be in the city of Wash- 

 ington." 



In accordance with this enactment, the Institution has received and 

 carefully preserved all the specimens which have been brought together 

 from more than fifty public exploring expeditions, and has added speci- 

 mens collected by itself, or obtained from foreign museums by exchange, 

 till its present edifice, in the beginuing of 1870, had become full to over- 

 flowing. 



- By an act bearing date July 31, 187G, additional duties were laid upon 

 the Smithsonian Institution as custodian, and $4,500 were appropriated 

 "for repairing and fitting up the so-called Armory building, on the mall 

 between Sixth and Seventh streets, and to enable the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution to store therein and to take care of specimens of the extensive 

 series of the ores of the precious metals, marbles, building stones, coals, 

 and numerous objects of natural history now on exhibition in Philadel- 

 phia, including other objects of practical and economical value presented 

 by various foreign governments to the National Museum." 



As a fruit of this act of the General Government, the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution fiuds itself the custodian of enormous collections that had been 

 displayed at the Centennial Exhibition, and ou the closing of that ex- 

 hibition, had been presented to the United States. These donations are 

 made by individuals among our own citizens, by foreign exhibitors, and 

 by several of the States of the Union, and there is scarcely a power in 

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