2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1956 



basis of detailed study of similar buildings and especially on the 

 basis of the knowledge of the objects to be displayed in it. 



The Joint Committee on Construction of a Building for the Museum 

 of History and Technology for the Smithsonian Institution, of which 

 our Regent Senator Clinton P. Anderson is chairman, and our Regent 

 John M. Vorys, House of Representatives, is secretary, has devoted 

 much careful attention to the architectural problems presented by the 

 building. When the new structure becomes a reality, the Nation will 

 owe a deep debt of gratitude to the wisdom and effective assistance 

 that this committee has provided in the development of the new 

 museum. The full membership of the committee is as follows : 



Clinton P. Anderson, Senator from New Mexico. 

 Leverett Saltonstall, Senator from Massachusetts. 

 H. Alexander Smith, Senator from New Jersey. 

 Stuart Symington, Senator from Missouri. 

 Edward Martin, Senator from Pennsylvania. 

 Clarence Cannon, Representative from Missouri. 

 Overton Brooks, Representative from Louisiana. 

 Robert E. Jones, Jr., Representative from Alabama. 

 John M. Vorys, Representative from Ohio. 

 Laurence Curtis, Representative from Massachusetts. 



Now that the Museum of History and Technology building is becom- 

 ing a reality, we must remember that even this great structure is but 

 one step, although a very important one, in providing our Nation with 

 suitable modern buildings in which to house and display its unequaled 

 collections that tell the story of the rise to greatness of the United 

 States of America. 



Other Buildings Needed 



Of all the urgent additional building needs of the Smithsonian, 

 that which has highest priority is the expansion of the Natural History 

 Museum. In 1930 the two wings needed for this building were au- 

 thorized by the Congress. This was done because at that time — a 

 quarter of a century ago — the crowding of the Nation's great Natural 

 History Museum had come to seem intolerable. In the intervening 

 years, conditions in this building have become progressively worse. 

 Now world-famous study collections must be piled to the ceiling in 

 the hallways of certain parts of this building. It is most sincerely 

 to be hoped that during the present year funds may be appropriated 

 for this long-delayed, although already authorized, addition to the 

 plant of the Institution. 



As indicated in my report a year ago, by a special gift of private 

 funds an architectural study of an adequate building for the National 

 Air Museum was made last year. The site that had been tentatively 

 allocated to the Smithsonian for this building, on Independence 

 Avenue at 10th Street, near other Smithsonian structures, now has 



