SECRETARY'S REPORT 



Table 1. — Visitors to certain Smithsonian buildings during the year ended 



June 80, 1956 



Year and month 



Smithso- 

 nian Build 

 ing 



Arts and 

 Industries 

 Building 



Natural 

 History 

 Building 



Aircraft 

 Building 



Freer 

 Building 



Total 



1955 



July 



August 



September 



October 



November 



December 



1956 



January 



February 



March 



April 



May 



June 



Total 



72, 782 

 79, 521 

 47, 146 

 39, 978 

 33, 959 

 20,632 



22,059 

 30, 761 

 52,088 

 132, 642 

 101,112 

 83,368 



191,975 

 195, 036 

 110, 582 

 107, 259 

 76,639 

 44,485 



54, 566 

 66, 471 

 148, 340 

 284,232 

 281,049 

 235,846 



93,645 

 100, 443 

 64,918 

 70,290 

 59, 150 

 40, 088 



43, 515 

 58,645 

 84,211 

 155,494 

 135, 286 

 101,839 



62, 162 

 62,002 

 37, 020 

 29,331 

 26, 801 

 20, 058 



21,325 

 26, 793 

 36, 145 

 82, 412 

 69, 102 

 58, 058 



10,392 

 11, 021 

 7,914 

 6,553 

 5,371 

 3,209 



3,604 

 4,756 

 6,633 

 12, 972 

 11,017 

 10,834 



430,956 

 448, 023 

 267, 580 

 253,411 

 201,920 

 128, 472 



145, 069 

 187, 426 

 327, 417 

 667, 752 

 597, 566 



716, 048 



1,796,480 



1,007,578 



531, 209 



94, 276 



4, 145, 591 



A special record was kept during the year of groups of school 

 children visiting the Institution. These figures are given in table 2 : 



Table 2. — Groups of school children visiting the Smithsonian Institution, 1955-1956 



Year and month 



Number of 

 groups 



Number of 

 children 



1955 



July 



August 



September 



October 



November 



December 



1956 



January 



February 



March 



April 



May 



June 



Total 



37 



139 

 94 

 313 

 389 

 167 



190 

 369 

 1,231 

 2,501 

 3,833 

 1, 194 



1,054 

 4,379 

 2,585 

 10, 559 

 12, 392 

 4,717 



5,086 

 10, 621 

 41, 655 

 94, 569 

 152, 961 

 44, 609 



10, 457 



385, 187 



LECTURES 



In 1931 the Institution received a bequest from James Arthur, of 

 New York City, a part of the income from which was to be used for 

 an annual lecture on some aspect of the study of the sun. The twenty- 

 third Arthur lecture was delivered in the auditorium of the Natural 

 History Building on the evening of April 26, 1956, by Dr. Donald H. 



