REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



Immediately upon the organization of the Board of Regents, in 

 September, 1846, a committee from its membership Avas appointed 

 to digest a plan for carrying out the provisions of this act. The 

 committee's report, submitted on January 25, 1847, contained the 

 following recommendations on the subject of the fine arts : 



The gallery of art, your committee think, should include both paintings 

 and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural designs; and it Is 

 desirable to have in connection with it one or more studios, in which young 

 artists might copy without interruption, being admitted under such regula- 

 tions as the board may prescribe. Your committee also think that as the 

 collection of paintings and sculpture will probably accumulate slowly, the 

 room destined for a gallery of art might properly and usefully meanwhile be 

 occupied during the session of Congress as an exhibition room for the works 

 of artists generally ; and the extent and general usefulness of such an exhibi- 

 tion might probably be increased, if an arrangement could be effected with the 

 Academy of Design, the Arts Union, the Artists' Fund Society, and other 

 associations of similar character, so as to concentrate at the Metropolis, for a 

 certain portion of each winter, the best results of talent in the fine arts. 



The Smithsonian Building was completed in 1855, and served for 

 a period of eight years to accommodate the collections of all classes. 

 Serious discouragement of the art interests in the Institution re- 

 sulted from the disastrous fire, which in 1865 burned out the second 

 story of the building, destroying its contents, including portions of 

 the art collections. The remaining works were removed, the paint- 

 ings and statuary to the Corcoran Gallery and the engravings to 

 the Library of Congress. Many years later they were in large part 

 returned to the Institution, and but little of importance transpired 

 until 1906, when a collection of paintings and other art works was 

 bequeathed to the Corcoran Gallery of Art by Harriet Lane John- 

 ston, mistress of the White House during President Buchanan's ad- 

 ministration, subject to the condition that should a national gallery 

 be established in Washington they should become the property of 

 that gallery. This led to an inquiry regarding the status of the 

 Institution as a national gallery, and the question was referred to 

 the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, which rendered the 

 decision that the Institution is the duly constituted National Gallery 

 of Art. The text of the decision is as follows : 



It is, therefore, on this eleventh day of July, in the year 1906, by the Supreme 

 Court of the District of Columbia, sitting in Equity, and by the authority 

 thereof, adjudged, ordered, and decreed, 



Tiiat there has been established by the United States of America in the City 

 of Washington a National Art Gallery, within the scope and meaning of that 

 part of the codicil bearing date April 21, 1902, made by the said Harriet Lane 

 Johnston to her Last Will and Testament, in the proceedings in this case men- 

 tioned, wherein she gave and bequeathed the pictures, miniatures, and other 

 articles to the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and in the event of the 

 Government establishing in the City of Washington a National Art Gallery, then 

 that the said pictures and other articles above mentioned should be delivered 

 to the said National Art Gallery and become its property; and that the said 

 National Art Gallery is the National Art Gallery established by the United 



