REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81 



iiection with that foundation, "the increase and diffusion of knowled^^e 

 ainon^ men." His appointment, if we may ind<;e from a statement in 

 Professor Henry's lifth report, was due quite as much to liis training;- 

 in editorial methods as to his professional acquirements. His appoint- 

 ment, it is stated, was made at this time more particularly in order that 

 his services mii;ht be secured to take charge of the i)ublications, and 

 that the Institution might take advantage of theample ex[)erience which 

 he had gained m this kind of work. 



"It was, of couise, impossible that the Kegeuts of the Smithsonian 

 Institution could have api)reciated the fact that he had invented, in 

 connection with his work upon his own private collections, a system of 

 museum administration which was to be of the utmost value in the de- 

 velopment of the great National Museum which healterward was instru- 

 mental in founding. All the elaborate and efficient methods of admin- 

 istration which are now in use in the Natioiuil Museum were present, 

 in germ at least, in the little i^rivate museum which grew up under 

 his control at home, aud which he brought with him in a single freight 

 car to form the nucleus of the great Smithsonian collections.* Among 

 the treasures of this collection, which are still cherished by the Institu- 

 tion, were a number of the choicest bird skins collected by Audubon, 

 who had always felt for him a sincere friendship from the time when 

 h«; proposed to the boy of seventeen that he should accompany- him on 

 a voyage to the headwaters of the Missouri, aud become his partner in 

 the preparatiou of a great work on the (juadrupeds of North America, 

 which afterward he brought out in conjunction with Ijachman, of South 

 Carolina. 



"The first grant made by the Institution for scientific exploration 



* Tlio ouly spociiueus in possessiou of tlio Institution at the time of liis arrival were 

 a few boxes of minerals aud plants. The collections of tlie Wilkes Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, which constitute the legal foundation of the National Museum of the United 

 States, were at that time under the charge of the National Institute ; aud although 

 hy the act of incorporation the Smithsonian Institution was the legal custodian of 

 the national cabinet of curiosities, it was not until 1857 that tiie Regents linally ac- 

 cepted the trust, aud the National Museum was definitely placed under the control 

 of the Smithsonian Institution and transferred to its building. Until this time Con- 

 gress had granted no funds for the support of tiie Smithsonian cabinet*?, and the collec- 

 tions had been acquired and cared for at the expense of the endowment fund. They 

 had, however, become so large and important in Id')? that the so-called "National 

 Collection" at that time act^uired Avas small in comparison. 



The National Museum thus had a double origin. Its actual althougii not its legal 

 nucleus was the collection gathered iuthe Smithsonian building prior to 1857. Its 

 methods of administration, which were in fact the very same that had been developed 

 by Professor liaird in Carlisle as early as 1845, are those which are still in use, and 

 which have stood the test of thirty years without any necessity for their modilication 

 V»ecoming apparent. In the Fifth Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, now 

 exceedingly rare, is a report by the assistant secretary in charge ol the natural his- 

 tory department, for the year 1H.')(), which enumerates the, specimens belonging to the 

 Museum on January 1, 1«51, including a fiiil accoimt of liis own <lcpi)sit. 



U. Mis. 142 G 



