APPEN prix. I, 
REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of 
the United States National Museum for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907: 
The most noteworthy feature of the year was the decided advance made in 
the subject of the fine arts, so marked indeed as to call for immediate action 
in providing at least a temporary home for the national gallery, whose nucleus 
already gathered has received much favorable comment. While the erection 
of the new building for the Museum has been retarded by delays in the delivery 
of granite, the work has proceeded steadily and otherwise satisfactorily. The 
collections were increased by about a quarter of a million specimens, including 
a large amount of material of exceptional importance. The classification and 
arrangement of the additions were carried forward as rapidly as possible under 
the present limitations as to means and space, and the collections as a whole 
have been maintained in good condition, 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 
The Congressional act of 1846, founding the Smithsonian Institution, provided 
that all objects of art belonging to the United States should be delivered into 
the custody of that establishment whenever suitable arrangements could be made 
from time to time for their reception. The formation of a national gallery of 
art thus intrusted to the Institution received early and favorable consideration 
by the Board of Regents and was embodied in the plan of organization. It was 
the sentiment of the Board that the gallery should include both paintings and 
sculpture as well as engravings and architectural designs, that studios for young 
artists should be provided, and, as it was expected that the collections would 
accumulate slowly, that the gallery should be partly used during the winter 
for loan exhibitions. 
In the Smithsonian building, which was immediately put in course of erection, 
two rooms were especially designed for the collections of art, the west hail and 
connecting range on the main floor. These quarters were so used for a time 
in conjunction with the library and reading room, but the accommodations thus 
afforded proved so inadequate that it became necessary to also devote to the 
same purpose a part of the large upper hall now occupied by the collection of 
prehistoric archeology. 
Examples of art were among the very first acquisitions by the Institution, 
and from time to time thereafter additions of one kind and another were 
received, but any sum that might have been spared for this purpose from the 
Smithsonian income would have been wholly insufficient to make any pronounced 
or systematic advance in this direction. In the National Museum, however, 
certain branches of art have been fostered for over a quarter of a century and 
are now fairly well represented. 
The first collection purchased by the Institution was the valuable series of 
prints assembled by the Hon. George P. Marsh, containing examples of the 
work of nearly every etcher and engraver of celebrity from the early masters 
to the middle of the last century. It was recognized as the choicest collection 
of its kind then in this country. Later accessions included, besides engravings, 
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