Report on the 

 National Collection of Fine Arts 



Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 

 ties of the National Collection of Fine Arts for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1955 : 



SMITHSONIAN ART COMMISSION 



The 32d annual meeting of the Smithsonian Art Commission was 

 held in the Regents Room of the Smithsonian Building on Tuesday, 

 December 7, 1954. Members present were : Paul Manship, chairman ; 

 Robert Woods Bliss, vice chairman; Leonard Carmichael, secretary 

 (member, ex officio) ; John Nicholas Brown, Gilmore D. Clarke, David 

 E. Finley, Lloyd Goodrich, Walker Hancock, George Hewitt Myers, 

 Charles H. Sawyer, Archibald G. Wenley, Lawrence Grant White, 

 Andrew Wyeth, and Mahonri Young. Thomas M. Beggs, director, 

 and Paul V. Gardner, curator of ceramics, National Collection of Fine 

 Arts, were also present. 



Resolutions on the deaths of George H. Edgell (June 27, 1954), 

 and Reginald Marsh (July 3, 1954) , members of the Commission, and 

 of Ruel P. Tolman (August 24, 1954) , former director of the National 

 Collection of Fine Arts, were submitted and adopted. 



The Commission recommended to the Smithsonian Board of Regents 

 the names of Bartlett Hayes to succeed Mr. Edgell, whose term ex- 

 pires in 1955, and Stow Wengenroth to succeed Mr. Marsh, whose 

 term expired in 1954. The Coromission also recommended the re- 

 election of Gilmore D. Clarke and Andrew Wyeth for the next 4-year 

 period. 



The following officers were elected for the ensuing year : Paul Man- 

 ship, chairman; Robert Woods Bliss, vice chairman; and Leonard 

 Carmichael, secretary. 



The following were elected members of the executive committee 

 for the ensuing year: David E. Finley, chairman, Robert Woods 

 Bliss, Gilmore D. Clarke, and George Hewitt Myers. Paul Manship, 

 as chairman of the Commission, and Leonard Carmichael, as secre- 

 tary of the Commission, are ex officio members of the executive 

 committee. 



Dr. Carmichael explained briefly the main points of the Smith- 

 sonian building program, especially in relation to proposed improve- 

 ments in Southwest Washington, and displayed models of Smithsonian 

 64 



