14 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



daily. It promises to be for a long time to come the most popular 

 exhibit in the whole National Museum, and the thanks of the Nation 

 are due Colonel Lindbergh and his friends in St. Louis for placing 

 the famous plane in the national collection. 



WALCOTT MEMORIAL MEETING 



In accordance with resolutions adopted by the Board of Regents on 

 the day following the death of Charles Doolittle Walcott, Secretary 

 of the Institution from 1907 to 1927, a memorial meeting was held on 

 January 24, 1928, in the auditorium of the National Museum, which 

 was attended by a large number of Doctor Walcott's friends and 

 official associates. Chief Justice William H. Taft, chancellor of the 

 Institution, presided. In his introductory remarks he reviewed very 

 briefly the many-sided career of Doctor Walcott in scientific research 

 and in public service, and concluded by saying that the meeting was 

 being held " in memory of a man whose work promoted real scientific 

 investigation and discovery in his particular field, who was a shining 

 example of a Government civil servant of the highest ideals and suc- 

 cess, and who for 20 years gave greatly of his energies and the 

 hardest kind of labor to expanding the usefulness of the Smithsonian 

 Institution." 



The first speaker was Dr. John C. Merriam, president of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, who considered Doctor Walcott's 

 scientific work, emphasizing particularly his contributions to the 

 study of the early life of the earth, as to the structure of ancient ani- 

 mals, their biological classification, their faunal grouping, or their 

 succession in time. " In all these aspects of the problem," said Doctor 

 Merriam, " his accomplishments belong to the first rank of the world's 

 researches." He spoke also of Doctor Walcott's continuous service to 

 the Carnegie Institution from the time of its organization until his 

 death. He was one of the original incorporators and a member of 

 the first board of trustees, and contributed largely to the accomplish- 

 ments of the Carnegie Institution during the 25 years of his asso- 

 ciation with it. 



Dr. Joseph S. Ames, professor of physics at Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity and chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aero- 

 nautics, spoke of Doctor Walcott's relations with that committee. 

 With the coming of the World War Doctor Walcott was one of the 

 few who realized the importance of a national survey and study of 

 aeronautics, and it was he who secured the passage of an act estab- 

 lishing the National Advisory Committee. His relations with it 

 were summed up by Doctor Ames thus : " He created it ; he planned 

 its duties wisely; he guided and inspired it; he secured the appro- 

 priations for its support. Each year he took more interest and pride 



