28 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



In referring to the industries of America it is not intended to recom- 

 mend that anything simiL^r to what is general!}' understood as an '"'in- 

 dustrial exhibition" should be attempted. The element of competitive 

 display should not be admitted, and no two objects of jyreciscly similar 

 import should ever be placed side by side, least of all, if of modern 

 manufacture. Such has hitherto been the policy of the Museum, and 

 should it ever be interfered with, it is to be feared that much of the use- 

 fulness of the Museum would be destroyed, both from a scientific and 

 educational standpoint. 



The principal European museums have been carefully studied by 

 officers of the Museum, and we have already profited largely by the 

 knowledge thus gained of their successes and their failures. A report 

 upon the great museums of the world is in preparation and will proba- 

 bly be published next j^ear. 



It must be remembered that the " National Museum" is actually of re- 

 cent origin, although the idea has been under consideration for many 

 years. As recently as 1877 the appropriation made by Congress for its 

 support was only $10,000. The " jSTational Museum " was not recognized 

 by that name in the Congressional appropriation bills until 1876, al- 

 though the term was used in the reports of the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution as early as 18G8,* and although the national collec- 

 tions were transferred to the custody of the Institution in 1858, in ac- 

 cordance with the act of incorporation passed in ISIG, by which it is 

 provided that " all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, 

 and all objects of naturul history, plants, and geological and miueral- 

 ogical specimens belonging or hereafter to belong to the United States, 

 which may be in the city of Washington," shall be delivered to the Ke. 

 gents of the Smithsonian Institution, and, together with the new speci- 

 mens obtained by exchange, donation, or otherwise, shall be so ar- 

 ranged and classified as best to facilitate their examination and study .t 



Nearly half a century has passed since the United States, by the pro- 

 visions of the will of James Smithson, first became proprietor of a scien- 

 tific collection, in the shape of the Smithson minerals and meteorites; 

 it is forty-five years since the National Institute was founded, with great 

 prestige and influence, for the avowed purj)ose of organizing a National 

 Museum of Natural History j forty since Congress threw upon the 

 Kegents of the Smithsonian Institution the responsibility of caring for 

 the so-called " National Cabinet of Curiosities ; " twenty-nine since this 

 responsibility was finally accepted and these collections were transferred 

 to the Smithsonian building ; thirty-seven since the Institutioii began 

 to make collections of its own ; ten since Congress formally adopted 



* See Report Smithsonian Institution, 1867, p. 55. 



t An act to establish the "Smithsonian Institution" for the increase and diffusion of 

 useful knowledge among men. (Approved August 10, 1846 ; Revised Statutes, title 

 Ixxiii, sections 5579-5594.) See also Revised Statutes, section 5586, and Statutes 

 Forty-fifth Congress, third session, chap. 182, p. 894. 



