REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OP THE 

 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



C. G. ABBOT 

 FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1939. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 

 ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and 

 the Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the 

 fiscal year ended June 30, 1939. The first 18 pages contain a sum- 

 mary account of the affairs of the Institution, and appendixes 1 to 11 

 give more detailed reports of the operations of the National Museum, 

 the National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, 

 the Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the 

 International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the Astro- 

 physical Observatory, the Division of Radiation and Organisms, the 

 Smithsonian library, and of the publications issued under the direc- 

 tion of the Institution. On page 133 is the financial report of the 

 executive committee of the Board of Regents. 



OUTSTANDING EVENTS 



Another step toward the realization of the proposed Smithsonian 

 Gallery of Art was taken during the year when the Commission set 

 up by Congress held a competition for a design for the Gallery. 

 The prize-winning design was submitted by Eliel Saarinen, of Bir- 

 mingham, Mich. The superstructure of the National Gallery of 

 Art, which is now being built on the Mall to house the Mellon art 

 collection and which is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution, was 

 nearly completed. It is hoped that the art collections may be in- 

 stalled by August 1940. The Institution's latest method of carrying 

 on the diffusion of knowledge — a weekly radio program in coopera- 

 tion with the United States Office of Education — completed 3 full 

 years on the air in June 1939. It is estimated that some 3,000,000 

 people hear this educational program each week. A retirement sys- 

 tem for employees paid from private Smithsonian funds was ap- 

 proved by the Board of Regents and is to go into effect on July 1, 

 1939. 



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