210 REPORT OB^ NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



his perambulatory excursions, two small cabinets of minute specimens of minerals, 

 a silver-plated dinner service, and a trunk tilled with manuscripts. The portrait 

 of Smithson while a student at Oxford, a medallion likeness of him in bronze, his 

 library, consisting of 1 50 volumes, and a small jiainting were saved. The marmscripts 

 consisted principally of notes on scraps of paper, intended apparently for alphabetical 

 arrangement in a commonplace book, after the manner of a philosophical dictionary. 



The losses in the north towers were the contents of the offices of the Secretary, 

 including the records and copies of the correspondence of the Institution, the wood- 

 cuts to illustrate the publications, the steel plates of an expensive memoir, several 

 boxes of stereotyi)e plates, a large number of manuscripts of the Secretary on scien- 

 tific subjects, four memoirs accepted for publication, about a hundred volumes of 

 valuable books fi-om the library, used for constant and immediate reference; a large 

 number of copies of the Smithsonian Reports and (lu])licate documents; the contents 

 of the workshop, consisting of a lathe, forge, a full set of tools, and an assortment of 

 hardware and materials for the construction and repair of apparatus; and of the 

 upper ro'om of the highest tower, including the clockwork of an anemometer for 

 recording the direction and force of the wdnd. Not only was this instrument itself 

 lost, but all the records which had been obtained by the use of it for the last seven 

 years. Fortunately, nearly all the other meteorological records, which were in a 

 lower room, were saved. 



The Indian portraits, as far as they were the likenesses of particular individuals, in 

 most cases can never be reproduced, but we are gratified to learn that the extensive 

 collection of Mr. Catlin of a similar character has been purchased in Europe by Mr. 

 Harrison, of Philadelphia, and will be rendered accessible to the student of ethnology. 

 Besides this, there are in existence, particularly in Canada, other portraits sufficient 

 in number and variety fully to illustrate the characteristics of the race. At the same 

 time the loss has fallen very heavily upon Mr. Stanley, the painter and owner of 

 this collection. It was the result of the labor of many years among the Indians; it 

 constituted the pride, as it has been the crowning effort, of his life, and he ardently 

 desired that it might be transmitted to posterity as a monument of his enterprise and 

 industry. The ho^je is entertained that the Government will see fit to give him an 

 order to paint a picture for the Capitol, in which the principal figures of this collec- 

 tion and the characteristics of the Indian race may be portrayed. 



The apparatus presented by Doctor Hare was interesting on account of its associa- 

 tion with the history of the advance of science in this country. The collection con- 

 tained most of the articles invented by the donor, and which are described in the 

 scientific journals of the first half of the present century. Among the chemical 

 implements were those used by that distinguished chenust in procuring for the first 

 time, without the aid of galvanism, calcium, the metallic basis of lime. A number 

 of the articles of apparatus presented by Doctor Hare, though injured by the fire, 

 may be repaired, and I have taken measures for their restoration. 



Among the articles of historic interest which were lost is the lens used by Priest- 

 ley for the evolution of oxygen from the oxide of mercury, and by means of which 

 the first distinct recognition of this elementary substance was effected. It had been 

 presented to the Institution ])y the nephew of the celebrated philosopher, as was 

 also the apparatus employed by Priestley in his experiments on bodies in condensed 

 atmospheres. The latter was but slightly injured and can readily be repaired. The 

 other articles of apparatus may be replaced at an expense of about $10,000. 



The most irreparable loss was that of the records, consisting of the official, scien- 

 tific, and miscellaneous correspondence, embracing 35,000 pages of copied letters 

 which had been sent, at least 30,000 of w^hich were the composition of the Secretary, 

 and 50,000 pages of letters received by the Institution; the receipts for publications 

 and specimens; reports on various subjects which have been referred to the Institu- 

 tion; the records of experiments instituted l)y the Secretary for the Governmeiit; 



