APPENDIX 3 

 REPORT ON THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 



Sik: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 

 ties of the National Collection of Fine Arts for the fiscal year ended 

 June 30, 1950: 



THE SMITHSONIAN ART COMMISSION 



The twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Smithsonian Art Com- 

 mission was held in the Regents' Room of the Smithsonian Building 

 on Tuesday, December 6, 1949. The members present were: Paul 

 Manship, chairman; Alexander Wetmore, secretary (member, ex 

 officio); John Nicholas Brown, Eugene Speicher, George Hewitt 

 Myers, George H. Edgell, Robert Woods Bliss, Archibald G. Wenley, 

 and David E. Finley. Thomas M, Beggs, Director of the National 

 Collection of Fine Arts, was also present. 



The Commission recommended the reelection of John Nicholas 

 Brown, George Hewitt Myers, Robert Woods Bliss, and Mahonri M. 

 Young for the usual 4-year period. The following officers were re- 

 elected for the ensuing year: Paul Manship, chairman; Robert Woods 

 Bliss, vice chairman, and Dr. Alexander Wetmore, secretaiy. The 

 following were elected members of the executive committee for the 

 ensuing year: David E. Finley, chairman, Robert Woods Bliss, Gil- 

 more D. Clarke, and George Hewitt Myers, Paul Manship, as chair- 

 man of the Commission, and Dr. Alexander Wetmore, as secretary 

 of the Commission, are ex-officio members of the executive committee. 



The secretary reviewed briefly the legal status of the John Gellatly 

 collection, suit for the possession of which had been decided in favor 

 of the Smithsonian Institution in the District of Columbia Court of 

 Appeals. The Director of the National Collection of Fine Arts 

 reported upon progress in the reorganization of sections of the per- 

 manent exhibition and outlined further plans for its improvement in 

 appearance and usefulness. A research project on the spectrochemi- 

 cal analysis of ancient glass, inspired by the Archeological Institute 

 of America and to be sponsored by the National Collection of Fine 

 Arts with technical aid from the National Bureau of Standards, was 

 briefly described. 



The following works of art were accepted for the National Collec- 

 tion of Fine Arts : 



Oil painting, Gold Mining, Cripple Creek, by Ernest Lawson, N. A. Henry 

 Ward Ranger bequest. 



Portrait in oil of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, by James Reid Lambdin. 

 Offered anonymously. 

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