REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 5 



ing regular and abundant returns. Professor Baird\s own vacations 

 were spent in field work. Ofticei-.s of the Army and Navy and of other 

 branches of the Government service, fishermen, fur traders, private 

 explorers, and such powerful organizations as the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany and the Western Union Telegraph Company, were enlisted in 

 the work and rendered valuable assistance. The influence exerted by 

 these beginnings has been lasting and widespread, as shown in the 

 extensive natural history operations of subsequent National and State 

 surveys, the organization of the Fish Commission and Bureau of Eth- 

 nology, and the support giv^en to scientific collecting l)y many other 

 bureaus of the CTOvernment. 



The discussion of plans for the organization of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, which devolved upon the first Board of Regents, led, in 

 January, 18-t7, to the unanimous adoption of the following resolution 

 expressing approval of the museum featur*^ as one of its imi)(>rtant 

 functions: 



Efi^olved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress estaljlishing the Institution, 

 and in accordance with the design of Mr. Sniithson, as expressed in his will, that 

 one of the principal modes of executing the act and the trust is the accumulation of 

 collections of specimens and objects of natural history and of elegant art, and the 

 gradual formation of a library of valuable works pertaining to all departments of 

 human knowledge, to the end that a copious storehouse of materials of science, 

 literature, and art may be provided, which shall excite and diffuse the love of learn- 

 ing among men, and shall assist the original investigations and efforts of those who 

 may devote themselves to the pursuit of any l)ranch of knowledge. " 



The policy thus announced has prevailed to the present day. 



In 1879, when most of the existing Government surveys, whose 

 work included the collecting of specimens in the field, had been estab- 

 lished, Congress deemed it important to practically reenforce the pro- 

 visions of the act founding the Institution, in order that there might 

 be no doubt as to the proper disposition of the material certain to be 

 derived from these various sources, T)y the following enactment in the 

 sundry civil appropriation act for 1880: 



All collections of rocks, minerals, soils, fossils, and ol)jects of natural history, 

 archa}ology, and ethnology, made by the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological 

 Survey, or by any other parties for the Government of the United States, when no 

 longer needed for investigations in progress shall be deposited in the National 

 Museum. 



Although the name "National Museum'' was sometimes used in the 

 earlier reports of the Smithsonian Institution, it did not appear in any 

 of the laws of Congress until 1875. Its general employment may ba 

 said to date from the time of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition 

 of 1876, the first exposition in this country in which the Government 

 participated, and the first to make known to vast numbers of the 

 people of the United States the existence of national collections at 



« Report of Committee on Organization, p. 20. 



