REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 

 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



C. G. ABBOT 



FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1940 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to submit herewith my report showing 

 the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and the 

 Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the fiscal 

 year ended June 30, 1940. The first 17 pages contain a summary 

 account of the affairs of the Institution, and appendixes 1 to 11 give 

 more detailed reports of the operations of the National Museum, the 

 National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the 

 Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Inter- 

 national Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the Astrophysical 

 Observatory, the Division of Radiation and Organisms, the Smith- 

 sonian Library, and of the publications issued under the direction 

 of the Institution. On page 109 is the financial report of the 

 executive committee of the Board of Regents. 



OUTSTANDING EVENTS 



The number of visitors to the buildings of the Institution and the 

 National Museum during the year reached a new record total — 2,506,- 

 171. The construction of the new National Gallery of Art Building, 

 presented to the Nation by the late Andrew W. Mellon and designated 

 a bureau of the Institution, was brought nearly to completion, and it 

 is expected that the Gallery will be opened to the public early in 1941. 

 The renovation of the galleries of the National Collection of Fine Arts, 

 housed in the Natural History Building of the National Museum, was 

 completed in October 1939, and the galleries were reopened to the 

 public in that month. The Smithsonian radio program, "The World 

 Is Yours," completed its fourth year on the air, continuing with un- 

 diminished popularity. An official Nation-wide poll taken during tho 

 year rated the program at the top of all noncommercial programs on 

 all networks. In honor of Dr. John R. Swanton's fortieth year on the 

 scientific staff of the Institution, there was published a volume of 

 Essays in Historical Anthropology of North America prepared by 

 members of the Institution's anthropological staff and dedicated to 



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