8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



nulls, birds, and marine invertebrates from Labrador and Newfound- 

 land; several accessions of Central American birds; a comprehensive 

 collection of fishes, crustaceans, moHusks, and miscellaneous inverte- 

 brates from the Gulf of Mexico; several large and important collec- 

 tions of insects, and several thousand marine invertebrates and shells 

 from the vicinity of Point Barrow, Alaska ; in botany, gifts of plants 

 especially from Alaska, Honduras, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela, and 

 Colombia, and more than 16,500 plants received in exchanges with 

 other institutions; in geology, 22 minerals heretofore unrepresented in 

 the IMuseum, 7 meteorites, fossil invertebrates and plants from several 

 important localities, and fossil vertebrate material from Panama and 

 the western United States ; in engineering and industries, a collection 

 of historical electronic and electrical apparatus, a complete technical 

 exhibit of the halftone process, and an exhibit telling the story of 

 modern surgical sutures; and in history, a model of the battleship 

 Missouri and the Adams-Clement Collection of memorabilia pertain- 

 ing to the families of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. 



Members of the staff conducted field work in Cuba, Panama, Costa 

 Rica, Honduras, Colombia, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, 

 British North Borneo, Okinawa, Alaska, and many sections of the 

 United States. The Museum issued 26 publications. 



National Gallery of Art. — Slightly more than one and a half million 

 visitors were recorded at the Gallery for the year, about 684,000 less 

 than for 1949-50. Accessions as gifts, loans, or deposits totaled 4,044, 

 nearly 1,700 more than last year. On March 17, 1951, the Gallery cele- 

 brated its tenth anniversary at a special opening of an exhibition of 

 paintings and other works of art acquired since 1945 by the Samuel 

 H. Kress Foundation. Over 24,000 invited guests attended. Eight 

 special exhibits were held at the Gallery during the year. Special 

 traveling exhibitions of prints from the Rosenwald Collection were 

 circulated to eight galleries and museums in this country, and exhibi- 

 tions from the "Index of American Design" were shown 55 times in 

 20 States and the District of Columbia. The volume on "The Index 

 of American Design" was published and placed on sale during the 

 year. Progress was made on the second volume of "Masterpieces of 

 American Painting from the National Gallery of Art." More than 

 37,000 persons attended the Gallery's special tours and the "Picture 

 of the Week" talks. The Sunday afternoon lectures in the auditorium 

 and the Sunday evening concerts in the garden courts were continued. 

 The Eighth Annual American Music Festival was held at the Gallery 

 in April. 



NatioTial Collection of Fine Arts.—ThQ Smithsonian Art Commis- 

 sion met on December 5, 1950, and accepted for the National Collection 

 15 paintings (part of the Adams-Clement gift to the Smithsonian 

 Institution), 5 miscellaneous oil paintings, 50 miniatures by American 



