10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



awarded to Eliel Saarinen, the second prize of $3,500 to Percival 

 Goodman, and each of the eight remaining competitors received the 

 third prize of $1,000. 



The Commission then requested the Procurement Division of the 

 Treasurj^ to submit a proposal for the construction of a model of the 

 Saarinen design on a scale of %-inch=l foot and appropriated 

 $1,600 for this purpose. As the resolution creating the Commission 

 required the approval of the successful design by the Board of 

 Kegents of the Smithsonian Institution, the Commission submitted a 

 report of their action to that Board. 



It was contemplated in the congressional resolution that the build- 

 ing for the Smithsonian Gallery of Art would be constructed with 

 private funds, and the Regents of the Institution were authorized 

 to solicit and receive subscriptions of funds for that purpose. At 

 the close of the year no funds had been raised. 



SMITHSONIAN RADIO PROGRAM 



"The World is Yours," the Smithsonian radio program put on the 

 air in cooperation with the United States Office of Education, the 

 National Broadcasting Co., and the Works Progress Administration, 

 completed its third year of consecutive weekly half -hour programs in 

 June 1939. The Institution selects the subjects of the broadcasts, 

 furnishes the necessary information to the script writer, and cor- 

 rects the scripts and supplementary articles. The Office of Educa- 

 tion is responsible for the writing of the scripts and supplementary 

 articles and, with the National Broadcasting Co., for the production 

 of the broadcasts. Time on the air is given by the National 

 Broadcasting Co., and financial support by the Works Progress 

 Administration. 



The series has continued to increase in popularity, as indicated 

 by the larger number of letters received in the last 6 months of the 

 year. At the close of the year more than 350,000 letters had been 

 received as a result of the broadcasts, but for the last 6-month period 

 the number was 106,000, a decided increase over any previous similar 

 period. Several marks of recognition came to the program during 

 the year : It was named by the National Women's Radio Committee 

 as the most popular of all adult education programs; in a poll of 

 750,000 votes taken by the magazine Radio Guide, "The World is 

 Yours" stood fourth among the 12 leading educational programs, 

 the only three ahead of it being "American School of the Air," "Great 

 Plays," and "Music Appreciation Hour"; and one of the scripts re- 

 ceived honorable mention at the annual meeting of the Institute for 

 Education by Radio held at Columbus, Ohio, in May 1939. A num- 



