750 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



" for repairing and fitting up the so-called armory building, on the Mall 

 between Sixth and Seventh streets, and to enable the Smithsonian Institution 

 to store therein and to take care of specimens of the extensive series of the 

 ores of the precious metals, marbles, building stones, coals, and numerous 

 objects of natural history now on exhibition in Philadelphia, including 

 other objects of practical and economical value presented by various foreign 

 governments to the national museum." 



As a fruit of this act of the General Government, the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution finds itself the custodian of enormous collections that had been dis- 

 played at the Centennial Exhibition, and on closing of that exhibition had 

 been presented to the United States. These donations are made by individ- 

 uals among our own citizens, by foreign exhibitors, and by several of the 

 States of the Union ; and there is scarcclj^ a power in the civilized world in 

 any region of the globe which has not taken part in the contributions, and 

 some of them with the largest generosity. Men of science most competent 

 to pass judgment pronounce them to be of immense value, and are of opin- 

 ion that, including the gift from States of the Union and the exhibits of the 

 United States, they could not have been brought together by purchase for 

 less than a million of dollars. 



That the magnitude and value of the donations from foreign governments 

 may be manifest, wc annex to this memorial a list of the more important of 

 them as prepared by Professor S. F. Baird, who represented the Smithso- 

 nian Institution at Philadelphia. 



Their adequate exhibition requires an additional building which shall af- 

 ford at least four times the space furnished by the present edifice of the 

 institution. 



The Government of the United States is now in possession of the mate- 

 rials of a museum exhibiting the natural products of our own country asso- 

 ciated with those of foreign nations which would rival in magnitude, value, 

 and interest the most celebrated museums of the Old World. 



The immediate practical question is : Shall these precious materials be for 

 the most part packed away in boxes, liable to injury and decay, or shall they 

 be exhibited? 



It was the act of Congress which ordered the acceptance in trust of these 

 noble gifts to the United States. The receiving of them implies that they 

 will be taken care of in a manner corresponding to the just expectations of 

 those who gave them ; and one of the prevailing motives of the donors was 

 that the productions of their several lands might continue to be exhibited. 

 The intrinsic value of the donations is moreover enhanced by the circum- 

 stances under which they were made. They came to us in the one hun- 

 dredth year of our life as a nation, in token of the desire of the governments 

 of the world to manifest their interest in our destiny. This consideration 

 becomes the more pleasing when we bring to mind that these gifts have 

 been received, not exclusively from the great nations of Europe from which 

 we are sprung, or from the empire and republics on our own continent be- 

 yond the line, but that they come to us from the oldest abode of civilization 

 on the Nile, from the time-honored empires and kingdoms of the remotest 

 Eastern Asia, and from the principal States which are rising into intellect- 

 ual and industrial and political greatness in the farthest isles and continent ; 

 from States which are younger than ourselves and bring their contributions 

 as a congratulatory offering to their elder brother. 



We have deemed it our duty to lay these facts and reflections before both 

 Houses of Congress and to represent to them that, if they, in their wisdom, 

 think that this unequaled accumulation of natural specimens and works 

 interesting to science, the evidence of the good will to us that exists among 

 men, should be placed where it can be seen and studied by the people of our 

 own land and by travelers from abroad, it will be necessary to make an ap- 

 propriation for' the immediate erection of a spacious building. Careful 

 inquiries have been instituted to ascertain the smallest sum which would be 

 adequate to that purpose ; and the plan of a convenient structure has been 



