THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



"" The advancement of the highest interests of na- 

 tional science and learning and the custody of objects 

 of art and of the valuable results of scientific expedi- 

 tions conducted by the United States have been com- 

 mitted to the Smithsonian Institution. In furtherance 

 of its declared purpose — for the ' increase and diffu- 

 sion of knowledge among men' — the Congress has 

 from time to time given it other important functions. 

 Such trusts have been executed by the Institution with 

 notable fidelity. There should be no halt in the work 

 of the Institution, in accordance with the plans which 

 its Secretary has presented, for the preservation of the vanishing races 

 of great North American animals in the National Zoological Park. The 

 urgent needs of the National Museum are recommended to the favora- 

 ble consideration of the Congress." (President Roosevelt's first mes- 

 sage to Congress.) 



In the first Smithsonian Report issued in the twentieth century it 

 may not be amiss to tell the readers of this volume very briefly what 

 the Institution is, how it came into being, and how it has fulfilled the 

 purposes for which it was established. 



In the popular mind the Smithsonian Institution is a picturesque 

 castellated building of brown stone, situated in a beautiful park at 

 Washington, containing birds and shells and beasts and many other 

 things, with another large adjacent building, often called the Smith- 

 sonian National Museum. The Institution is likewise supposed to have 

 a large corps of learned men, all of whom are called ' ; Professors" 

 (which they are not), whose time is spent in writing books and making 

 experiments and answering all kinds of questions concerning the things 

 in the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the 

 earth, 



Contrast this popular notion with the facts. The Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution is an " Establishment" created by an act of Congress which owes 

 its origin to the bequest of James Smithson, an Englishman, a scien- 

 tific man, and at one time a vice-president of the Royal Society, who 



SM 1901- 10 14a 



