KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 21 



The section of the Eevised Statutes cited by the President is tlie 

 act of foundation of the Smithsonian Institution, which declares 

 that " whenever suitable arrangements can be made from time to 

 time for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious 

 research, all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and 

 mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States * * * 

 shall be delivered to such persons as may be authorized by the Board 

 of Regents to receive them, and shall be so arranged and classified 

 in the building erected for the Institution as best to facilitate the 

 examination and study of them;" so that the first object of the 

 Institution, in the eyes of its founders, appears to have been to give 

 it the curatorship of the Art collections of the nation. 



During its early years this object was promoted in various ways; 

 among others,by the acquisition of a very valuable collection of prints 

 and engravings belonging to the Hon. George P. Marsh. After the 

 fire in the Institution in 18('>5 these prints were deposited for tempo- 

 rary safe-keeping in the Library of Congress and (with other works 

 of art) in the Corcoran Gallery. 



Subsequently an appropriation was granted by Congress for mak- 

 ing a fireproof room in which these could be kept, but it was not until 

 1896 that the Regents provided for their recall to the Institution. In 

 the journal of the proceedings of the Board for 1896 (Smithsonian 

 Report, 1896, pp. xiii and xiv) will be found the action taken b}^ the 

 Board providing for their restoration to their own immediate control. 

 The following resolution offered then by Senator Gray was adopted : 



Resolved, That the question of the propriety of bringing the worlcs of art 

 belonging to the Institution under the more immediate control of the Board of 

 Regents be referred to the executive committee and the Secretary, with power 

 to act. 



In pursuance of this the Institution brought back to its own keep- 

 ing a number of prints of value, both from the Library of Congress 

 and the Corcoran Gallery, leaving, by an amicable understanding with 

 the latter establishment, as a loan, a few of the works of art, notabl}^ 

 a large picture by Healy. 



The old name of the collections was the " Gallery of Art," a title 

 which seems almost too ambitious for the present collections of the 

 Institution, though it is to be hoped that this designation will be 

 justified bv their future increase. These have been placed by me in a 

 room specially fitted up for that purpose (the Art Room), under the 

 temporary charge of the librarian. 



There is now in the courts awaiting legal interpretation a Avill con- 

 taining a bequest of a valuable collection of art objects. 



On January 3, 1905, Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, offered under 

 certain contingencies to bequeath to the Smithsonian Institution his 

 valuable art collection, proposing at the same time to provide after 



