98 Alcniorial of George Broivn Goodc. 



any of the Executive Departments, and not necessarily connected with the duties 

 thereof) shall be deposited in said buildings (or shall be transferred to said institu- 

 tion, to be there preserved and arranged). 



In these bills, drawn up in 1840, may be found the germ of the National 

 Museum idea, even to the extent of a proposition for an appropriation 

 from the National Treasury, to be expended under the direction of the 

 officers of the National Institution, the president and directors of which 

 were the prototypes of the Smithsonian Chancellor and Regents for pur- 

 poses connected with the administration of the collections such as it was 

 not deemed proper to pay for out of the Smithsonian fund." 



The object of the National Institution was the promotion of science 

 and the useful arts, but the principal agency chosen for accomplishing 

 this object was a national museum of natural history, etc. 



This was stated clearly in its declaration of objects at the time of its 

 organization in 1840, as well as in its constitution.^ 



The sections relating to the Museum in the proposed act of incorpora- 

 tion of the Institution of 1841 corresponded precisely to Articles XIV 

 and XVI of the constitution of the society, except that the provision 

 for the appointment of curators by the Institution is omitted. 



It was evidently the intention that the Board of Managers should 

 control the national collections by virtue of the authority vested in them 

 in their proposed control of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The act to incorporate the National Institution did not receive the 

 approval of Congress until 1842,^ when new proposals for the organiza- 



'And for the transportation and arrangement of the same, the sum of fo,ooo is 

 hereby appropriated out of the Treasury of the United States, to be expended under 

 the direction of the president and directors of the National Institution. (Senate 

 bill, No. 245, Twenty-sixth Congress, 1839-1841, section No. 4.) 



^'Constitution, May, 1840, January, 1841 : Constitution, February, 1842: 



Article XIV. The resident and corre- Article XIV. The Institution shall 



sponding members shall exert themselves have power to appoint Curators and 

 to procure specimens of natural history, others for the preservation and arrange- 

 etc, and the said specimens shall be ment of its collections. The resident 

 placed in the Cabinet under the superin- and corresponding members shall exert 

 tendence of a Board of Curators to be themselves to procure specimens of nat- 

 appointed by the Directors. All such ural history, etc. ; and the said specimens 

 specimens, etc., unless deposited spc- shall be placed in the Cabinet under the 

 daily, shall remain in the Cabinet, and in superintendence of a Curator or Curators, 

 case of the dissolution of this Institution, All such specimens, etc., unless deposited 

 shall become the property of the United specially, shall remain in the Cabinet, 

 States. and, in case of a dissolution of the Insti- 



tution, shall become the property of the 

 United States. 



Article XVI. The various collections 

 of the Institution shall be jilaced in the 

 apartments which may be designated for 

 that purpose by a majority of the Direct- 

 ors. 

 3 Senator Preston, April 11, 1842, reintroduced his bill of the previous year. 



