REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 49 



On January 24, 1928, at 11 a. m., there was held a special memorial 

 meeting under direction of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution to commemorate the life and work of Charles Doolittle 

 Walcott, fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The gath- 

 ering was presided over by the chancellor of the Institution, the 

 Hon. William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the United States. 

 Addresses were delivered by Dr. John C. Merriam, representing the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington; Dr. Joseph S. Ames, for the 

 National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics; Dr. George Otis 

 Smith, for the United States Geological Survey; and Dr. Charles G. 

 Abbot, for the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Special exhibitions in connection with various meetings included 

 an historical exhibit dealing with ornithology arranged in connection 

 with the convention of the American Ornithologists' Union during 

 November, and one concerned with the work of American artists 

 portraying mammals in connection with the annual meeting of the 

 American Society of Mammalogists from April 1 to 15. 



On the evening of February 28 members of the Geological Society 

 of Washington were given a special view of the geological collections 

 in the National Museum. From March 1 to 3 there was a special dis- 

 play of the work in nature study in tlie fourth to the eighth grades in 

 the District of Columbia schools arranged under Miss Esther W. 

 Scott, teacher of elementary science. 



On June 21 there was a special meeting in the Arts and Industries 

 Building of a group of 100 persons representing the Chamber of 

 Commerce of St. Louis and other backers of the Lindberoh flight, 

 who assembled for a ceremony beneath Colonel Lindbergh's plane, 

 the Spirit of St. Louh.^ when a silver medal commemorating the first 

 New York-to-Paris flight was presented to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. The Secretary responded with a brief address, in which he 

 expressed the thanks of the Institution to those closest to Colonel 

 Lindbergh in his great venture for the privilege of exhibiting the 

 plane in tlie Museum halls. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



The exhibition halls of the National Museum were open during 

 the year on Aveek days from 9 a. m. to 4.30 p. m., while in addition 

 the Natural History Building and the Arts and Industries Building 

 were opened Sunday afternoons from 1.30 to 4.30. From January 

 22 to the close of the year the exhibits in the Smithsonian Building 

 were also opened to the public on Sunday afternoon for the hours 

 indicated. All buildings were closed on Christmas Day and New 

 Year's Day. 



