REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN 

 INSTITUTION 



C. G. Abbot 



FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1928 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 

 ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and 

 the Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the 

 fiscal year ended June 30, 1928. The first 28 pages contain a summary 

 account of the affairs of the Institution. Appendixes 1 to 10 give 

 more detailed reports of the operations of the United States National 

 Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, the International Exchanges, the 

 National Zoological Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, the United 

 States Regional Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature, the Smithsonian library, and of the publications issued 

 under the direction of the Institution; and Appendix 11 contains a 

 list of subscribers up to October 15, 1928, to the James Smithson 

 Memorial Edition of the Smithsonian Scientific Series. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 

 land, who, in 1826, bequeathed his property to the United States of 

 America "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men," In receiving the property and accepting 

 the trust. Congress determined that the Federal Government was 

 without authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore con- 

 stituted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the Presi- 

 dent, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the 

 executive departments." 



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