REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 19 



I he proposed building. Mr. Gari Melchers was selected to succeed 

 Mr. Daniel C. French, who had resigned as chairman of the 

 commission. 



Permanent accessions to the gallery for the year were limited to 

 about 10 paintings, but Mrs. Ealph Cross Johnson deposited a 

 collection of 11 early Christian paintings by Italian, Dutch, Flem- 

 ish, and Spanish masters, and has indicated her intention of making 

 the " deposit " a permanent addition to the gallery. A number of 

 loans were accepted during the year, and the gallery in turn loaned 

 a number of paintings to accredited art institutions. Three special 

 exhibitions were held in the gallery during the year, and the World 

 AVar portrait collection was installed in an improvised gallery on 

 the second floor of the Natural History Building of the National 

 Museum, which proved to be quite satisfactory for their exhibition. 



FREER GALLERY OF ART 



Work completed during the year includes the examination, classi- 

 fication, and cataloguing of Chinese and Japanese stone sculptures 

 and paintings, and much additional work has been accomplished in 

 the preservation, framing, lettering, and mounting of paintings, 

 etchings, and lithographs. Identification photographs have been 

 made of many objects in the collection to provide ready reference 

 and to save handling of the collections. A special exhibition of 

 Whistler etchings, dry points, and lithographs was held in four of 

 the galleries during January and Februar3\ Fourteen hundred gal- 

 lery books describing the objects on exhibition have been prepared, 

 and there have also been issued a Synopsis of History for the use of 

 students and a third printing of the pamphlet giving general infor- 

 mation about the gallery and collections. 



Additions to the collections by purchase included Chinese bronzes. 

 Indian paintings, Persian paintings, and Chinese sculptures, and the 

 library was increased by the addition of a number of books and 

 pamphlets in various Asiatic and European languages. Several 

 cases, picture frames, and other necessary articles of equipment were 

 constructed in the gallery workshop. 



The total attendance for the year was 111,942, including 482 visi- 

 tors who came to work in the study rooms or to examine objects not 

 on exhibition. The auditorium of the gallery was used in February 

 by the Library of Congress for the presentation of three recitals of 

 chamber music, and in April, Prof. Paul Pelliot, of the College de 

 France, gave an illustrated lecture on " Chinese bronzes, jades, and 

 sculptures." 



The archeological expedition to China under the joint auspices of 

 the gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has carried on 



