130 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



LANGLEY AERONAUTICAL LIBRARY 



The Langley aeronautical library, as the aeronautical collection 

 of the Institution is now called, is rapidly coming to be a prominent 

 division of the Smithsonian library. While it is still comparatively 

 small, numbering only 1,612 volumes and TOO pamphlets, together 

 with a large number of photographs and newspaper clippings, it 

 includes many rare items, some of which were in the original gift 

 as it came from Samuel Pierpont Langley, the third secretary of the 

 Institution, after whom the library was named, and others among 

 the additions made since by Alexander Graham Bell, Octave 

 Chanute, and James Means. During the last year the recataloguing 

 of this library was begun, and well advanced. The accessions were 

 12 volumes. Much use was made of the collection, especially by 

 Government experts and others* from different parts of the United 

 States and Europe, who were investigating matters of aeronautical 

 interest. 



NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART LIBRARY 



The library of the National Gallery of Art, which occupies for 

 the present part of the Natural History Building, concerns itself 

 chiefly with the art of the United States and Europe. The collection, 

 Avhile small, totalling only 848 volumes and 1,024 pamphlets, consti- 

 tutes a carefully chosen nucleus for the larger library that will be 

 formed when a special building is provided for the gallery. The 

 library was increased during the last year by 144 volumes, 714 parts 

 of volumes, and 238 pamphlets. The most important gift was 

 received from Dr. William H. Holmes, director of the gallery. 

 This is mentioned in more detail earlier in thi.s report. 



FREER GALLERY OF ART LIBRARY 



The library of the Freer Gallery of Art holds a unique place in 

 the Smithsonian library system. It contains many works in the 

 Chinese and Japanese languages, some of which are very rare, and 

 for purposes of research supplements to an important degree the 

 oriental division of the Library of Congres,s. It has to do mainly 

 with the interests represented by the collections of art objects 

 pertaining to the arts and cultures of the Far East, India, Persia, 

 and the nearer East; by the life and works of James McNeill Whistler 

 and of certain other American painters whose pictures are owned by 

 the gallery; and, further, to a very limited extent, by the Biblical 

 manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries, which, as the pos- 

 session of the Freer Gallery, are known as the Washington manu- 

 scripts. Additions to the library during the year numbered 1,126 



