REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 6 



mens, coming mostly as gifts or as the result of Smithsonian expedi- 

 tions. Perhaps the most outstanding single accessions in the various 

 departments of the Museum were as follows: In anthropology, the 

 Richard K. Peck collection of materials representing the Negritos 

 and Papuans of Dutch New Guinea, the Dyaks of Borneo, and the 

 Jivaro of Ecuador; in biology, an accession of 465 mammals from 

 Africa, Asia, and South America, representing 300 forms not previ- 

 ously contained in the collections, by exchange from the Field 

 Museum of Natural History ; in geology, a notable series of Chilean 

 minerals, including six new species, collected by Mark Bandy; in 

 arts and industries, the airplane Winnie Mae, flown by Post and 

 Gatty and later by Post alone in various record flights, purchased 

 through special Congressional appropriation. A number of field 

 expeditions went out during the year, financed mainly by Smith- 

 sonian private funds. Visitors to the various Museum buildings 

 numbered 1,973,673. There were published 1 annual report, 11 

 Proceedings papers, and 1 paper in the series Contributions from 

 the National Herbarium, 



National Gallery of Art. — A large part of the year's work related 

 to the care, protection, and restoration of paintings belonging to the 

 Government. In the interests of the better preservation of works of 

 art and of better working conditions, an air-conditioning unit was 

 installed in the storage workroom. At the 15th annual meeting of 

 the National Gallery of Art Commission on December 10, 1935, the 

 death of Joseph H. Gest, chairman, was announced, and Charles L. 

 Borie, Jr., was elected chairman. A number of portraits and other art 

 works were accepted by the Commission for the Gallery. Four minia- 

 tures were acquired through the Catherine Walden Myer fund. The 

 Gallery held eight special exhibitions, as follows : National and inter- 

 national high school art; intaglio prints and etchings by members of 

 the Chicago Society of Etchers ; miniatures by members of the Ameri- 

 can Society of Miniature Painters; paintings and etchings by Mons 

 Breidvik ; portraits by Bjorn P. Egeli ; vitreous enamels by Frances 

 and Richard McGraw ; the First Annual Metropolitan State Art Con- 

 test; and paintings by children receiving free art instruction in the 

 New York area. 



Freer Gallery of Art. — The year's additions to the collection include 

 a Persian brass box, four Chinese bronzes, and a sculptured Persian 

 pediment, all shown in plates 1 and 2. There vv^ere also added four 

 leaves from a sixteenth century Persian manuscript, two Indian and 

 three Persian paintings, and in pottery one Chinese cup and a Syro- 

 Egyptian bowl. Curatorial work was devoted to the study of Chinese, 

 Japanese, Armenian, Arabic, Persian, and East Indian objects and of 

 the texts and seals associated with them. During the year 673 objects 

 and 225 photographs of objects were submitted to the curator for an 



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