4 A!N]SrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



including an authorization for an appropriation of $65,000, passed 

 the House and the Senate and was approved by the President on 

 August 15, 1949. 



The Board was advised that Congress had recently requested the 

 Bureau of the Budget to contact all Federal agencies that were carry- 

 ing on activities with the aid of Federal appropriations without having 

 clear-cut basic authority therefor to advise them to submit drafts of 

 bills proposing the requisite authorizations. In accordance with this, 

 a draft of legislation was prepared to cover the activities of the Bureau 

 of American Ethnology, the Astrophysical Observatory, and certain 

 miscellaneous housekeeping functions that had been carried on for 

 many years but had not been clearly authorized by basic legislation. 

 The Bureau of American Ethnology was established in 1879 "for 

 the purpose of continuing ethnological researches among the North 

 American Indians under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution," 

 with annual appropriation for this purpose, but without formal 

 authorization other than that of the appropriation acts. The Astro- 

 physical Observatory was founded, in similar manner, in 1890, for 

 the measurement and analysis of solar radiation, and since 1891 has 

 received annual appropriations. Further, Congress has appropriated 

 funds since 1886 for the maintenance of Smithsonian buildings and 

 grounds, and since 1896 for the preparation of manuscripts, drawings, 

 and illustrations for publication. The Honorable Clarence Cannon, 

 regent, introduced H. R. 3417 on March 10, 1949, containing the 

 authorizations needed. This duly passed the House of Representa- 

 tives, and in the Senate the matter received the attention of Senator 

 Clinton P. Anderson, regent, and the friendly consideration of 

 Senator Carl Hayden, chairman of the Committee on Rules and 

 Administration, to the end that the act passed the Senate and on 

 August 22, 1949, was signed by the President. This places these 

 activities, some of which have been in operation for over 70 years, 

 on firm legal basis. 



Developments concerning the Gellatly art collection since the 

 previous meeting of the Board were reported as follows by the Secre- 

 tary : At the annual meeting last year, it was reported that the action 

 of Mrs. Charlayne Whiteley Gellatly against the Secretary, in an 

 attempt to recover the Gellatly collection from the Secretary in his 

 status as a private individual though acting as custodian under the 

 Smithsonian Institution, had been carried to the United States Court 

 of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, following decision in 

 favor of the Secretary in the District Court of the United States for 

 the District of Columbia. Under date of September 28, 1949, the 

 United States Court of Appeals issued an order stating that the court, 

 having duly considered a petition for a rehearing, had denied the 



