186 BOARD OF REGENTS. 



building for the Government collections, and also the decision of 

 the Attorney General respecting the law. 



The Secretary then presented the annual report of the operations, 

 expenditures, and condition of the institution during the year 1857; 

 which was read. 



The Board then visited the rooms of the building, the collections, 

 &c, and adjourned. 



April 10, 1858. 



The Board of Regents met this day at 11 o'clock, a. m. 



Present, Hon. J. M. Mason. Hon. S. A. Douglas, Hon. George E. 

 Badger, Hon. Benjamin Stanton, Hon. L. J. Gartrell. 



Mr. Mason was called to the chair. 



The minutes were read and approved. 



The report of the Building Committee for the year 1857 was read 

 and accepted. 



The report of the Executive Committee was presented, together 

 with the estimates for the year 1858. 



Communications relative to the care of the Government collec- 

 tions, the Wynn estate, the publications, investigations, and other 

 operations of the institution, were read. 



On motion of Mr. Badger, the Secretary was directed to have the 

 windows and other parts of the east wing of the building put in 

 good order. 



The following report from Professor Felton was presented. 



Report on the present of Miss Contaxaki. 



The Secretary laid before the Board a volume received from Greece, and sent as a 

 gift to the Smithsonian Institution, together with the letter of the Hon. Mr. Spence, 

 late United States Minister to Constantinople, to the Secretary of State, and the letter 

 of the Hon. Lewis Cass, the Secretary of State, to Professor Henry, the Secretary of 

 the Institution. The volume and the correspondence were referred to Professor 

 Felton. 



The volume was transmitted from Athens, Greece, through Mr. Spence. It was 

 designed and executed by a Greek lady of rare literary accomplishments, Miss Eliza- 

 beth B. Contaxaki, assisted by six Greek gentlemen, resident in Athens. It contains 

 sketches of the principal ruins in that city, and views of the most famous historical 

 places there and in other parts of Greece, correctly drawn and delicately colored, to- 

 gether with the passage, from the classic authors, in which the objects and places are 

 described or referred to, translations of the passages, and extracts from English and 

 French writers on the same subjects. The book is adorned with exquisitely drawn 

 vignettes, and emblematic devices, and with specimens of the wild flowers which 

 grow in the places described, carefully preserved and pressed, and attached to the 

 leaves. The volume is bound in blue velvet, and tastefully decorated with silver. It 

 is put in an elegantly and richly carved case, made of olive wood from the olive 

 groves near Athens, where stood, in ancient times, the academic groves of Plato's 

 school. The body of the case is made of the trunk of the tree, and the ornamental 

 portions, of the root, which is of darker and richer color. This beautiful gift, there- 

 fore, combines a great variety of objects, possessing, from their associations with the 

 loftiest achievements of Hellenic genius, a deep and singular interest, and forming a 



