244 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1903. 



It is belicvod tliat when properly arranged the National Museum of the United 

 States will take rank as one of the great industrial and economical displays of the 

 natural resources of the globe. The accommodation will then be afforded for the 

 exhibition of the mineral wealth of every State and Territory, and the display of 

 samples of every new mine, with all the appliances for rendering the study of the 

 whole interesting and profitable. The coals, the marbles, and other ornamental 

 minerals will be exhibited systematically; the useful and ornamental products 

 and derivatives of the animal kingdom will be shown — not only such as relate to the 

 United States, but with illustrations of the whole subject in other parts of the world — 

 which can not fail to suggest new and important applications in this country. 

 Illustrations of th(> food and other fishes of this and other countries, the best meth- 

 ods of securing them and of preparing them for the requirements of mankind, and 

 the varied productions of the aboriginal races of North America can also be displayed 

 on a proper scale. 



During the second session of the same Congress the bill for a new 

 building was again brought up in both Houses. Brief remarks were 

 made in the Senate and the bill slightly amended in regard to the 

 wording relative to location. It was passed as an item in the sundry 

 civil act for 1880 in the following terms: 



For a fireproof building for the use of the National Museum, 300 feet square, to be 

 erected under the direc/tion and supervision of the Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, in accordance with the plans now on file with the Joint Committee of Public 

 Buildings and Grounds, on the southeastern portion of the grounds of the Smithso- 

 nian Institution, $250,000: said building to be placed east of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, leaving a roadway between it and the latter of not less than 50 feet, with its 

 north front on a line with the south face of the l)uildings of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment and Qf the Smithsonian Institution; and all expenditures for the purposes 

 herein mentioned, not including anything for architectural plans, shall be audited 

 by the proper officers of the Treasury Department. 



The following extracts from the report of the building commission, 

 submitted January 19, 1880, give a summary of the building opera- 

 tions for 1879: 



Anticipating the early action of Congress in the premises, the Board of Regents, 

 on the 17th of January, 1879, adopted the following resolution: 



"Resolved, That the executive committee of the Board, or a majority thereof, and 

 the Secretary be, and they are hereby, authorized and empowered to act for and in 

 the name of the Board of Regents in carrying into effect the provisions of any act of 

 Congress that may be passed providing for the erection of a building for the National 

 Museum." 



Accordingly, on the 7th of March, 1879, Hon. Peter Parker and Gen. W. T. Sherman, 

 the resident members of the executive committee, with the Secretary, met in the office 

 of the Institution, and after organizing under the title of "National Museum Build- 

 ing Commission," of which Gen. W. T. Sherman was chosen chairman, proceeded 

 to adopt such measures as in their opinion appeared best calculated to realize, with 

 the least possible delay, the intention of Congress. 



The committee at the outset invited Gen. IVI. C. Meigs, Quartermaster-General 

 U. S. Army, to act in the capacity of consulting engineer to the commission, and 

 also selected Messrs. (/luss & Schulze, whose plans for the new building were those 

 approved by Congress, as suiierintending architects. Mr, Daniel Leech was a])pointed 

 secretary of the commission. 



