REPORT OP ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 11 



Our Museum is the result of the activities of au enlightened Govern- 

 ment. Through a thousand channels materials for the formation of a 

 museum come into the possession of the Government, and out of such 

 materials our Museum has been built. A museum formed in this man 

 uer, however, suffers sooner or later fi'om immense accumulations of 

 objects of certain kinds and from the absence of others. This is true 

 of the National Museum. At the outset no additions were unwelcome, 

 and the expectation that all important deficiencies would be supplied 

 might properly be indulged in. As the years have passed, however, it 

 has become more and more apparent that many of these deficiencies 

 can only be supplied by purchase. 



More striking present results might certainly have been attained by 

 limiting the developments of the Museum to special fields. We have, 

 however, had in view the future as well as the ijresent, and no object 

 has been refused a place in the Museum which Is likely to be needed, 

 even in the remote future, in the development of whatever grand 

 museum plans the nation may ultimately be willing to promote. 



B. — Organization and Scope of the Museum. 



The National Museum is under the charge of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and its operations are supervised by the Board of Regents of 

 the Institution. 



The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is by law the "keeper 

 of the Smithsonian Museum," and the assistant secretary, by the usage 

 of nearly fifty years, its executive head. 



In the act of Congress passed in 1846, to establish the Smithsonian 

 Institution, are contained the following provisions concerning the scope 

 of the museum to be placed under its charge : 



1. The act above referred to provides that " all objects of art and 

 of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, 

 plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging, or 

 hereafter to belong, to the United States, wliich maybe in the city 

 of Washington," shall be delivered, to the Regents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and, together with new specimens obtained by 

 exchange, donation, or otherwise, shall be so arranged and classi- 

 fied as best to facilitate examination and study. 



2. It provides that, in pro])ortion as suitable arrangements can 

 be made for their reception, these objects shall be delivered to such 

 persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive 

 them. 



3. It provides that they shall be arranged in such order and so 

 classified as best to facilitate their examination and study. 



4. It provides that they shall thus be arranged in the building to 

 be erected for the Institution. 



5. It authorizes the Regents to obtain new specimens, by exchange 

 of duplicate specimens and by gilt, and directs also that they shall 

 be appropriately classified and arranged. * 



The National Museum thus became the authorized place of deposit 

 for all objects of art, archiEology, ethnology, natural history, miner- 



