Report of the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution 



LEONARD CARMICHAEL 



For the Year Ended June 30, 1961 



To the Board of Regents of the Smitlisonian Institution: 



Gentlemen: I have the honor to submit a report showing the 

 activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and its branches 

 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1961. 



GENERAL STATEMENT 



Just 115 years ago, Joseph Henry presented to the first Board of 

 Regents of the Institution, at their request, a "Program of Organ- 

 ization of the Smithsonian Institution." "WHiile this document was 

 being formulated, Henry was still a professor at Princeton and 

 actively engaged in teaching and experimental work in physics. 

 He was a man of broad influence. His eminence in science had already 

 led his contemporaries to describe him as being next to Franklin 

 in the list of great American physical scientists. The program that 

 he outlined for the Smithsonian was so good that he was almost at 

 once offered the position of Secretary of the Institution. After much 

 hesitation he accepted the post and spent the next 32 years skillfully 

 putting into practice and developing the plan that he had evolved. 



Today, as we look at Henry's program for the Smithsonian and 

 study the steps that he took to give it reality, we are struck by his 

 wisdom and especially by his foresight. Before writing the basic 

 program, Henry acquainted himself with the life and the attitudes 

 of the distinguished English scientist, James Smithson, whose bequest 

 established the Institution. This study led Henry to place great 

 emphasis on the words Smithson himself had used to describe the 

 objective of his establishment, that it should be "for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men." 



It is almost startling to note, in spite of intervening wars and many 

 social and economic changes, that the constructive activities of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in 1961 can still accurately be subsumed under 

 the headings of the increase and diffusion of laiowledge as directed by 

 Smithson and as made a reality by Joseph Henry. 



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