NATIONAL MUSEUM— BUILDINC4S. 241 



Senator Morrill, on February 0, 1877, remarked: 



As I have stated in years past, it has seemed to be a necessity that we should pro- 

 vide for a national museuin. It has been the opinion of the Committee on Public 

 Buildings and Grounds on the i)art of the Senate, I believe unanimously, for some 

 years that we ouglit to take all of tlie squares next east of the public grounds, 

 throughout the length and breadth of the north and south range of one s(|uare, taking 

 one square in depth and the whole length, for the purpose of a national museum 

 and Congressional Library, and evidently this matter should ])e provideil for at once. 

 * * * There are, as I am informed, at least fifty carloads of articles that have 

 been given to us by foreign governments. Tlurty-two or thirty-three out of the forty 

 nationalities abroad have given us their entire exhibits at the Centennial Exhibition. 

 Their money value is scarcely computable, but if it were to be computed it exceeds 

 our own, as large as our exhibits were there and as credital)le to the country. Our 

 own, I believe, in money value, have been computed at $400,000. These foreign 

 exhibits are computed, at least in money value, at the sum of $600,000, but in his- 

 torical and scientific interest they perhaps surpass anything that has been assembled 

 in any national museum on the globe. 



Senator J. W. Stevenson, on the same day, made the following 

 statement: 



It is known to the Senate that the Smithsonian Institution was represented at the 

 late Centennial Exhiliition at Philadelphia. At the close of that exposition a number 

 of the foreign pov/ers there represented and who contributed to that grand display, 

 at its close generously donated to the Smithsonian Institution most of their articles 

 and products there exhibited. * * * The motive which prompted these dona- 

 tions to the Smithsonian Institution was unquestionably one of amity and respect 

 entertained by the foreign powers donating them for the Government of the United 

 States. But unquestionably these donors expected that this Government would, 

 through the agency of the Smithsonian Institution, keep these articles thus donated 

 on public exhibition, and in this way the respective products of each country would 

 become known to the people of our entire country. 



The articles donated are valuable, rare, varied, and occupy much space. * * * 

 The Smithsonian Institution has no building in which they can be either exhibited 

 or safely preserved. They must remain, therefore, in boxes, subject to injury and 

 to decay, unless Congress shall take some immediate action toward the erection of a 

 building in all respects suitable for their exhibition and preservation. The capacity 

 of such a building is estimated by competent architects to be four times as large as 

 the Smithsonian building. A plan of such a structure has been already drawn by 

 General Meigs. * * * 



Professor Henry assures me that with the erection of the contemplated building 

 on the plan of General Meigs, with the articles now on exhibition in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution with those just donated, we shall have the nucleus of a national 

 museum which, in a few years, will equal any in the world. 



In presenting- the memorial to the House on February 7, 1877, 

 Representative Hiester Chnner said, among other things: 



It may not be disputed that the acceptance of them [the collections from Phila- 

 delphia] by the Government imposes an obligation that they shall be preserved and 

 exhibited for the gratification and instruction of the people. Their preservation and 

 exhibition nuist be confided to the National JNIuseum, of which, by law, the Regents 

 of the Smithsonian have tlie custody. They have presented for our consideration 

 the necessity for erecting a suitable building for the purposes I have indicated, giv- 

 ing an estimate of its proJiable cost. 



HAT Mus 1903 Hi 



