REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM BUILDING COMMISSION 



FOR 1881. 



Office of the Smithsonian Institution, 



Washington, D. C, January 2, 1882. 

 To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : 



Gentlemen : By resolution of the Board of Regents of January 17 

 1879, the Executive Committee of the Board and the Secretary of the 

 Institution was authorized to "act for and in the name of the Board of 

 Eegents in carrying into effect the provision of any act of Congress that 

 might be passed providing for the erection of a building for the National 

 Museum," the care and administration of which establishment is en- 

 trusted to the Smithsonian Institution. 



The anticipated provision having been made on the 3d of March, 1879, 

 by a Congressional appropriation of $250,000 " for a fire-proof building 

 for the use of the National Museum, to be erected under the direction of 

 the Eegents of the Smithsonian Institution," in pursuance of authority 

 vested in them by your Board, the Executive Committee and the Secre- 

 tary, after organizing on the 7th of March, 1879, under the title of Na- 

 tional Museum Building Commission, proceeded to adopt such measures 

 as in their opinion appeared best calculated to realize, with the least 

 possible delay, the intention of Congress. 



At the session of the Board in January, 1880, the Commission had the 

 honor to present to you a report of the operations connected with the 

 construction of the new building from their inauguration to the close of 

 1879; and again, early in January, 1881, a similar report of progress 

 during 1880 was submitted. These documents were resiiectively accom- 

 panied by reports of the superintending architects, which, while giving 

 a technical and descriptive record of the plan, design, and construction 

 of the building, presented accurately detailed exhibits of expenditures- 

 Having thus laid before you a record of operations of construction to 

 the close of 1880, it only remains for the Commission to call the atten- 

 tion of the Board to those of the year just closed. 



At the beginning of this period the balance to the credit of the appro- 

 priation was $5,050.33, of which, however, $1,000 was a specific appro- 

 priation for the construction of a sewer to relieve the building from water, 

 which, on account of the inadequacy of the Seventh street sewer during 

 extraordinary rains, would flood the cellars. It being ascertained sub- 

 sequently, however, that this amount was insufficient, an additional $900 

 was voted by Congress to be applied to sewer purposes. With the appro- 



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