48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



between the history of the world art of the past and the story of 

 art in America to be revealed as the centuries and millenniums pass. 

 The essential concept of an American National Gallery is the 

 assemblage of an adequate number of the best available products of 

 the American brush (or chisel) from period to period and this is 

 exactly what the Ranger bequest aims to do. 



SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS HELD IN THE GALLERY 



The special exhibitions held in the gallery during the fiscal year 

 formed no small part of its activities and are as follows: 



THE HENEY WARD KANGEB EXHIBITION 



The exhibition of paintings purchased to date by the Council of the 

 National Academy of Design from the Henry Ward Ranger fund, 

 was opened on the evening of December 10, 1929, with a reception 

 by the Secretary and Regents of the Institution, the director of 

 the gallery, and the members of the National Gallery of Art Com- 

 mission. The National Academy of Design was represented by Mr. 

 Charles P. Curran, corresponding secretary; Mr. Albert P. Lucas, 

 assistant corresponding secretary; Mr. Henry Prellwitz, treasurer; 

 and Messrs. Charles S. Chapman, Ernest L. Ipsen, and Carl Run- 

 gius, of the council of the academy. The exhibit closed on January 

 31, 1930. 



All of the paintings, 78 in number, are by outstanding contempo- 

 rary American artists and, as stated above, under the terms of Mr. 

 Ranger's will the National Gallery has the privilege of claiming any 

 of them which it deems desirable for the national collections within 

 the 5-year period beginning 10 years after the artist's death, and 

 ending 15 years after his death. In the meantime the pictures are 

 assigned by the Council of the National Academy of Design to 

 institutions which maintain a free art gallery. These institutions 

 lent the pictures for the present exhibition, in which for the first time 

 the Ranger fund pictures have been assembled in one place. Pay- 

 ment of expenses of transportation and insurance was made pos- 

 sible through a grant of $1,000 voted by the Carnegie Corporation 

 of New York. This grant was procured through the endeavors of 

 Mr. Gari Melchers, chairman of the National Gallery of Art Com- 

 mission. 



Members of the National Gallery Commission submitted, confiden- 

 tially, their votes as to the paintings exhibited which were suitable 

 for permanent exhibition by the gallery. This vote is preserved for 

 the information of those who in future will be charged with selecting 

 pictures from the Ranger collections. 



