The Genesis of tlic United Slates National Museum. 155 



exhibition while in charge of the Connnissioncr of Patents, the Institution would, 

 inider these conditions, become the curator of the national collections. This propo- 

 sition was agreed to by the government, and the contemplated transfer has accord- 

 ingly been made. 



It is believed that this arrangement w^ill be nmtually beneficial to the Patent Office 

 and the Institution, since the former will be relieved from a duty scarcely compatible 

 with the design of its establishment, and will gain possession of one of the largest 

 rooms in the city for the exhibition of a class of models to which the public have not 

 previously had ready access ; while the Smithsonian Institution will be able to pre- 

 sent to the strangers who visit Washington a greater number of objects of interest, 

 and appropriate that portion of the large building not required for its own most 

 important operations to a useful purpose. 



The cost of keeping the collections at the Patent Office, including fuel, was about 

 f4,ooo annually, but the Regents might with justice have asked for an additional 

 amount sufficient to pay the interest on the cost of that portion of the edifice occu- 

 pied by the museum. It was, however, thought more prudent to restrict the appli- 

 cation to the sum above mentioned, and to request that the appropriation might be 

 continued under the charge of the Secretary of the Interior, thus obviating the 

 necessity of an annual application to Congress by the Institution itself. 



The cases at present required for the accommodation of the collections have been 

 constructed at a cost within the appropriation made for that purpose; and the Insti- 

 tution is indebted to Hon. J. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, and Hon. J. Holt, 

 Commissioner of Patents, for the i:se of glass sash and shelving no longer needed 

 in the room which formerly contained the museum in the Patent Office, but which 

 have been applied to good purpose in supplying deficiencies in the Smithsonian 

 building. The Regents are also indebted to Thomas U. Walter, esq. , architect of the 

 United States Capitol extension, for the beautiful design of the cases, and to Edward 

 Clark, esq., architect of the Interior Department, for the inspection of the work dur- 

 ing its progress and the examination of the accounts presented by the contractor. 



In order to increase the capacity of the large room appropriated to the collection, 

 the cases have been arranged in two stories, forming a series of alcoves, and a gal- 

 lery on each side. By the adoption of this plan space can be provided for double 

 the number of specimens which were exhibited at the Patent Office. 



A considerable portion of the collections has been arranged, and a taxidermist 

 employed to repair the specimens of zoology which have been damaged, and to pre- 

 pare for exhibition others which have not previously been mounted. The nmseum 

 will soon be an object of continued and increasing interest to the inhabitants of the 

 city and to strangers who visit the capital of the United States. 



An assent to the arrangement above stated for taking charge of the government 

 collections is by no means inconsistent with the regret expressed in previous reports 

 that the law of Congress directed provision to be made from the Smithsonian fund for 

 a public museum and library. It must be evident to anyone who attentively studies 

 the past history of the operations of the Institution that the interest of the money 

 expended on the building intended for this purpose would have been much more 

 efficiently applied in the development and publication of new truths. But, in all 

 cases where many views are to be consulted, the question is not merely what ought 

 to be, but what can be accomplished. From the first there has existed a clear con- 

 ception of the means by which the idea of the donor could be best realized, and the 

 aim of the majority of the Regents has constantly been to approximate, as nearly as 

 the restrictions of Congress would allow, to the plan originally proposed. The policy 

 has been invariably the same, and the present reputation and generally acknowledged 

 success of the Institution are the result of this undeviating course.' 



'Smithsonian Report, 1S58, pp. 13-16. 



