21>0 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



The plan for a "Natioual Institution" put forth by Joel Barlow iu 

 180G includes mention of the natural history and art museums of France 

 in the preamble, and in the plan itself (though ambiguously worded) 

 are provisions for collections of minerals and philosophical instruments. 



While these and other similar plans show that the formation of 

 national collections of art and science was thought desirable by the 

 fathers, they did not result directly in the establishment of museums 

 under the Cxovernment. The first really scientific collection that came 

 into the possession of the Government was probably, as Dr. Goode has 

 remarked,' Smithson's cabinet of minerals, which was delivered, with 

 the remainder of the Smithson estate, into the hands of Eichard Eush, 

 the agent of the United States, iu 1838. The collection is described 

 by a committee of the National Institute as follows : 



Among tbe eifects of the late Mr. Smithson is a cabinet which, so far as it has been 

 examined, proves to consist of a choice and beautiful collection of minerals, com- 

 prising probably eight or ten thousand specimens. The specimens, though gener- 

 ally small, are extremely perfect, and constitute a very complete geological and 

 mineralogical series, embracing the finest varieties of crystallization, rendered more 

 valuable by accompanying figures and descriptions by Mr. Smithson, and in his own 

 writing. The cabinet also contains a valuable suite of meteoric stones, which appear 

 to be suites of most of the important meteorites which have fallen in Europe during 

 several centuries. 



Three years later, in 1841, there was formed in Washington, chiefly 

 through the exertions of Hon. Joel E. Poinsett, of South Carolina, a 

 scientific organization under the name of the National Institute with 

 the avowed purpose of assembling scientific collections. Article 14 

 of the bill of incorporation reads thus : 



The resident and corresponding members shall exert themselves to procure speci- 

 mens of natural history, and so forth ; and the said specimens shall be placed in the 

 cabinet, under the superintendence of a board of curators, to be appointed by 

 the directors. All such specimens, and so forth, unless deposited specially, shall 

 remain in the cabinet ; and, in case of the dissolution of the institution, shall become 

 the property of the United States. - 



The Institute was dissolved in 1861 and its collections deposited in 

 the Smithsonian Institution. " By this society," remarks Dr. Goode, 

 "the nucleus for a national museum was gathered in the Patent Office 

 Building in Washington, and public opinion was educated to consider 

 the establishment of such an institution worthy of the attention of the 

 Government of the United States."-^ 



The first collections of any magnitude which the National Institute 



' Goode. " Genesis of the National Museum," Report United States National Muse- 

 um, 1891, p. 273. 



-Rhees, W. J. " The Smithsonian Institution : Documents Relative to its Origin," 

 p. 240. 



=^ Report of the United States National Museum, 1893, page 3. For a full account 

 of the National Institute and its relation to the Smithsonian Institution, by Dr. 

 Goode, the reader is directed to ''The Smithsonian Institution, 1846-1896, the History 

 of its First Hall' Century," 1897, pp. 38-48. 



