REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Charles D. Walcott 

 FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1925 



To the Board of Regents of the Sinithso7iian Institution: 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to submit herewith the customary 

 annual report showing the activities and condition of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and the Government bureaus under its adminis- 

 trative charge during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925. The first 

 27 pages of the report contain an account of the affairs of the Insti- 

 tution, and in Appendixes 1 to 10 are given more detailed summaries 

 of the operations of the United States National Museum, the Na- 

 tional Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology, the International Exchanges, the National 

 Zoological Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, the United States 

 Regional Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 

 ture, the Smithsonian Library, and of the publications issued under 

 the direction of the Institution. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 

 land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 

 America, "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." In receiving the property and accepting 

 the trust. Congress determined that the Federal Government was 

 without authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore 

 constituted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the 

 President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of 

 the executive departments,*' 



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