40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1918. 



forms. The need of considering the erection of a building exclu- 

 sively for the National Gallery of Art is pressing and should early 

 receive attention. The gallery has already failed to acquire many 

 rich gifts of art works because of the impossibility of caring for them 

 in the present buildings, and other cities are being enriched at its ex- 

 pense. Because of this unpreparedness, treasures of art of great 

 worth well within its reach have gone elsewhere. Art works more 

 than any other national possession typify advanced civilization, and 

 the public demands means of acquiring and keeping and facilities 

 for utilizing such. Most modern nations have made their capital 

 cities principal centers of art development and art accumulation, and 

 progress in this respect may well be regarded as an index of the de- 

 gree of advancement of the people. 



MEETINGS AND CONGRESSES. 



The facilities afforded by the Museum for meetings were in greater 

 demand than usual for governmental and scientific gatherings and 

 were fully utilized until the latter part of October, when the com- 

 mittee rooms were temporarily given over to the Bureau of War Risk 

 Insurance. Meetings continued to some extent to be held in the audi- 

 torium until the last of December, when all engagements of accomo- 

 dations were canceled, and the auditorium was also placed at the dis- 

 posal of that bureau. 



The Washington Society of the Fine Arts, as customary, was 

 granted the auditorium for its lecture courses for the season, but held 

 only five at the Museum. One of the committee rooms was assigned 

 to the Anthropological Society of Washington and to the Federal 

 Photographic Society for their regular meetings for the winter. 

 The former used it but once, holding four other assemblies in the 

 auditorium, and the Photographic Society went elsewhere, though it 

 used the auditorium twice in July for exhibitions of motion pictures. 



The American Public Health Association held a three-day session 

 in the auditorium, on health problems and opportunities of the war, 

 with a reception on the opening night, and the Medical Society of the 

 District of Columbia celebrated its centennial anniversary by an 

 afternoon meeting there. 



The facilities of the Museum were used by various Government 

 departments for conferences (1) to formulate plans for the produc- 

 tion and conservation of the live-stock industry of the United States, 

 (2) in the interest of fall wheat and rye planting, (3) of State agents 

 on home demonstration work in the South, and (4) on home eco- 

 nomics ; for the pathological seminar of the Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try; for a lecture on horticultural work in China; for a meeting 

 of the women employees of the Department of Agriculture to discuss 



