44 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



States of America at, and in connection with, the Smithsonian Institution, located 

 in the District of Columbia, and described in the Act of Congress entitled an Act 

 to establish the " Smithsonian Institution " for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men, approved August 10, 1S46 (9 Stat. L., 103; Title LXXIII, 

 sec. 5579, R. S., U. S.), and the subsequent acts of Congress amendatory thereof; 

 and it is further adjudged, ordered, and decreed that the United States of 

 America is entitled to demand and receive from the surviving Executors of the 

 said Harriet Lane Johnston, the Complainants named in the bill of complaint 

 in this case, all of the above-mentioned pictures, articles of sculpture, engravings, 

 miniatures, and other articles, the same to be and become a part of the said 

 National Art Gallery so established by the United States of America at, and in 

 connection with, the said Smithsonian Institution. 



+ * * * * * * 



Wendell P. Stafford, Justice. 



The collection was therefore assigned to its care. Since that time 

 the national collections have increased rapidly, chiefly, however, 

 through gifts and bequests of art works by patriotic citizens. 



It is a noteworthy fact that until the beginning of the year 1920-21 

 no appropriation had been made for the gallery or for the purchase 

 of art works, and no provision for the employment of a salaried 

 curator or other employees of the gallery, all works of art being 

 associated with the department of anthropology of the National 

 Museum. It happened thus that the organization of the gallery as a 

 separate unit of the Institution did not require any radical change 

 in the personnel of the gallery, the curator of the department of 

 anthropology, who had previously cared for the art collections, be- 

 coming director, and the recorder of that department becoming the 

 recorder of the gallery. 



THE HENRY WARD RANGER FUND. 



Fortunately, a liberal private fund has recently become available 

 for the increase of the collections. The will of the late Henry Ward 

 Ranger provides the sum of $200,000, the interest of which is to be 

 devoted to the purchase of works of art for the National Gallery, the 

 carrying out of the bequest being intrusted to the National Academy 

 of Design. The provision is as follows : 



All pictures so purchased are to be given by the Council to art institutions in 

 America, or to any library or other institutions in America maintaining a gal- 

 lery open to the public, all such gifts to be upon the express condition that the 

 National Gallery at Washington, administered by the Smithsonian Institute, 

 shall have the option and right, without cost, to take, reclaim, and own any 

 picture for their collection, provided they exercise such option and right at anj 

 cime during the five-year period beginning ten years after the artist's death 

 and ending fifteen years after his death; and, if such option and right is not 

 exercised during such period, the picture shall remain and be the property of 

 the institution to which it was first given. 



The purchases so far made by the council of the academy are as 

 follows : 



