T? E P ( ) Jl T 



THE CONDITION AND PROGKESS OF THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 'M\, VM. 



Tli('ii.\i,;i> U,\iiii!rN, 

 AsslMdiit SeciU'ldri/ of llic Siiiillisdiiinii Iiisliliilii>n. in churi/f of Ihr l'. S. X<tlio)Kll Miisiiiiil. 



GENERAL CONSI DKPv A'JK )NS. 



The United States National Museum had its oriyin in tlu^ act of 

 Cong-ress of 184(3 founding- the kSmithsonian Institution, which made 

 the formation of a museum one of the principal functions of the 

 latter, and jirovided that — 



Whenever suitable avrangementH can l)e made from time to time for their recep- 

 tion, all objects of art and of foreis^n and curious reseai-ch, and all objects of natural 

 history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belunging to the Tnited 

 States, which may be in the city of Washington, in whosesoever custody they may 

 be, shall be deli\ered tu such persons as may be authorized I>y the Board of Regents 

 to receive them, and shall be so arranged and classified in the building erected for 

 the Institution as best to facilitate the examination and study of them; and when- 

 ever new specimens in natural historv, geology, or mineralogy are obtained for the 

 museum of the Institution, l)y exchanges of duplicate specimens, Avhich the Regents 

 may in their discretion make, or by donation, whicli they may receive, or otherwise, 

 the Regents shall catise such new sj^ecimens to be appropriately classed and arranged. 



The principal and accumulated interest of the Smithsonian fund 

 amounted at thtit time to about ^75(),()()0, a sum considered amph^ to 

 meet the needs of the various operations in which it was proposed that 

 the Smithsonian Institution should eno-uo-e. In lS4ti probahh^ not 

 more than one or two universities or learned establishments in Amer- 

 ica had so larg(> an endowment, and it was apparently the idea of 

 Concrress that the fund was sufficient both for the erection of a build- 

 ing- and for the care of the collections which would l)e turned over 

 to it or acquired by the national surveys, and in other ways. The 

 Museum thus beg-an as an integral part of the Institution, coordinate 

 with its library, and was required by law to ln•o^'ide for the Govern- 

 ment collections which had previoush* accumulated, a dut^' which the 



