EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81 



iiectiou witli that foundiitioii, "the increase and (lilliLsioii of knowledg^e 

 among men." His appointment, if we may judge from a statenient in 

 I'rofcssor Uenry's fifth report, was due quite as much to his training 

 in editorial methods as to his professional acquirements. His appoint- 

 ment, it is stated, was made at this time more particularly in order that 

 his services might be secured to take charge of the publications, and 

 tliat the Institution might take advantage of theample experience which 

 he had gained m this kind of work. 



"It was, of course, impossible that the Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution could have appreciated the fact that he had invented, in 

 connection with his work upon his own i^rivate collections, a system of 

 nuiseum administration which was to be of the utmost value in the de- 

 veloi)meiitof the great National Museum which he afterward was instru- 

 mental in founding. All the elaborate and efticient methods of admin- 

 istration which are now in use in the National Museum were present, 

 in germ at least, in the little private museum which grew up under 

 his control at home, and which he brought with him in a single freight 

 car to form the nucleus of the great Smithsonian collections.* Among 

 the treasures of this collection, which are still cherished by the Institu- 

 tion, were a number of the choicest bird skins collected by Audubon, 

 who had always felt for him a sincere friendship from the time when 

 In^ proposed to the boy of seventeen that he should accompany him on 

 a voyage to the headwaters of the Missouri, and become his partner in 

 the prei)aration of a great work on the quadrupeds of North America, 

 which afterward he brought out in conjunction with Bacbman, of South 

 Carolina. 



"The tirst grant made by the Institution for scientific exploration 



* The only specimens in possession of the Institution at the time of his arrival were 

 a few boxes of minerals and plants. The collections of the Wilkes Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, which constitute the legal foundation of the National Museum of the United 

 States, were at that time under the charge of the National Institute; and although 

 by the act of incorporation the Smithsonian Institution was the legal custodian of 

 the national cabinet of curiosities, it was not until 18.')7 that the Regents finally ac- 

 cepted the trust, and the National Museum w^as definitely placed under the control 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and transferred to its building. Until this time Con- 

 gress had granted no funds for the support of the Smithsonian cabinets, and the collec- 

 tions had beeu acquired and cared for at the expense of the endowment fund. They 

 had, however, become so large and important in 1857 that the so-called "National 

 Collection" at that time acquired was small in comparison. 



The National Museum thus had a double origin. Its actual although not its legal 

 nucleus was the collection gathered in the Smithsonian building prior to 1857. Its 

 methods of administration, which were in fact the very same that had been developed 

 by rrofcssor JJaird in Carlisle as early as 1845, are those which are still in use, and 

 which hav<; stood the test of thirty years without any necessity for their modilicatiou 

 l)eeoming apparent. In the Fifth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, now 

 exceedingly rare, is a re|)ort by the assistant secretary in charge ot the natural his- 

 tory department, for the year 18.50, which enumerates the specimens belonging to the 

 Museum on .January 1, 1851, including a full account ofliis own deposit. 



H. Mis. 142 () 



