APPENDIX 2 

 EEPORT ON THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report on the affairs 

 of the National Gallery of Art for the year ending June 30, 1924 : 



The fourth year of the existence of the National Gallery as a sep- 

 arate administrative unit of the Smithsonian Institution has wit- 

 nessed substantial advance in directions corresponding closely with 

 those of preceding years, although its activities have been restricted 

 by the lack of funds for the purchase of works of art, for travel and 

 for active promotion. The staff, limited to two members, has been 

 occupied largely in the current work of the gallery, with receiving, 

 recording, cataloguing and installing collections, permanent and 

 temporary. A number of important works were received during 

 the year notwithstanding the fact that the gallery is without suit- 

 able space for the display of additional exhibits. The discourage- 

 ment due to the shortage of gallery accommodations is, however, 

 greatly lessened by the well-grounded expectation that additions of 

 great importance await only the fulfilling of stipulated conditions 

 and by the further reasonable expectation that when the contem- 

 plated gallery building is completed progress will be greatly 

 accelerated. 



During the year constant effort has been made to impress upon the. 

 country the urgent need of a national gallery building, without 

 which little progress can be made. A majority of the art works 

 now owned by the Nation havA been acquired simply because there 

 happened to be available gallery space in the Natural History 

 Museum in which collectors could see their treasures properly in- 

 stalled. Although Congress, in 1921, set aside an appropriate site 

 for a gallery building, it was left to the Institution to obtain the 

 funds necessary for the employment of an architect to prepare the 

 plans and for the erection of the building. As the result of an 

 appeal for the former purpose $11,000 was raised and Mr. Charles 

 A. Piatt was engaged on the plans, this work being under way at 

 the close of the year. It is feared, however, that funds for the 

 erection of the building can not be obtained in this way, since the 

 people incline to the view that the Nation should provide a building 

 required for purely national purposes. 



It is anticipated that Congress will in the near future come to feel 

 the urgent need of a home for the valuable works of art that patri- 



47 



