2 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 



tion and Organisms has made rapid progress in the construction and 

 equipment of laboratories for physical, chemical, and biological 

 investigations, and has already obtained preliminary results in two 

 highly interesting researches. Dr. E. H. Goddard, whose experi- 

 ments in designing and building a rocket to explore the unknown 

 upper layers of the atmosphere the Institution has aided for 12 

 years, brought the work to the point of practical demonstration. 

 The late Simon Guggenheim, at Colonel Lindbergh's suggestion, has 

 made a large grant to complete this development under most favor- 

 able auspices. Dr. C. U. Clark, under a grant from Ambassador 

 Charles G. Dawes, has made important discoveries of unpublished 

 early Spanish-American records in European archives. Four more 

 volumes of the Smithsonian Scientific Series were practically ready 

 to be issued at the close of the year, making eight volumes completed, 

 and the last four are well advanced in preparation. Substantial 

 sums have already been received by the institution as royalties on 

 the sale of this series. The fifth and sixth awards of the Langley 

 Gold Medal for Aerodromics were made to Charles Matthews Manly 

 and Commander (now Admiral) Richard Evelyn Byrd. Under the 

 auspices of the Institution and its branches many expeditions went 

 into the field to obtain necessary data and collections. Reference 

 to these will be found in the following reports. Many monographs 

 and smaller papers embodying the results of original researches have 

 been published and widely distributed throughout the world. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 

 land, who, in 1826, bequeathed his property to the United States of 

 America " to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." In receiving the property and accepting 

 the trust, Congress determined that the Federal Government was 

 without authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore 

 constituted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the 

 President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of 

 the executive departments." 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS 



The affairs of the Institution are administered by a Board of 

 Regents whose membership consists of "the Vice President, the 

 Chief Justice, three members of the Senate, and three Members of 



