XVI PEOCEEDi:?irGS OF THE BOAKD OF EEGEXTS. 



THE FREER ART COLLECTIONS. 



The Chancellor laid l^efore the Board a letter from the President, 

 urging the acceptance of the Freer collections, and inclosing a com- 

 munication from Mr. Freer, dated December 15, 1905, reciting the 

 terms and conditions of his offer as then made through him. 



These letters are as follows: 



The White House. 

 Washington. Dcccmher 19. 1905. 

 To the Chief Justice of the United States. Chancellor of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and Member of the Board of Regents: 



Sib : I herewith inclose a copy of a letter sent to me by :\Ir. Charles L. Freer 

 offering to beqneath his art collections to the Smithsonian Institution or the 

 United States Government together with $500,000 in money to construct a suit- 

 able building; or if it is deemed preferable, to make a present conveyance of 

 the title to such Institution or the Government and a bequest of the sum of 

 $.!»00.000 for the building. The offer is made upon certain terms and conditions 

 which, in my judgment, are proper and reasonable. 



It is impossible to speak in too high terms of the munific-ence shown by Mr. 

 Freer ia this offer: and it is one which the Government of the United States 

 should at once close with as a matter of course. Mr. Freer's collection is liter- 

 ally priceless: it includes hundreds of the most remarkable pictures by the 

 best known old masters of China and Japan. It also includes hxmdreds of pic- 

 tures, studies, and etchings by certain notable American artists, those by 

 Whistler alone being such as would make the whole collection of unique value — 

 although the pictures by the Chinese and Japanese artists are of even greater 

 worth and consequence. There are other art pieces which I need not mention. 

 Any comptent critic can testify to the extraordinary value of the collection. I 

 should suggest that either Doctor Sturgis Bigelow or Mr. John La Farge be 

 sent to Detroit to examine the collection, if there is any question about it ; 

 although I assume that every member of the Board of Regents is familiar with 

 its worth. The conditions which Mr. Freer imposes are in effect that nothing 

 shall be added to or taken from the collection after his death, and that the col- 

 lection shall be exhibited by itself in the building to be constructed for it with- 

 out charge to the public; furthermore, that he shall have the right to make 

 such additions to the collection as he may deem advisable, but not to take any- 

 thing away from it after April next, the collections remaining in the possession 

 of Mr. Freer until his death and then in the possession of his executors until the 

 comrtletion of the building. The^e conditions are, of course, eminently proper. 



All that is asked of the Government or the Regents of the Smithsonian now is 

 that they shall accept this magnificently generous offer. Nothing whatever else 

 is demanded at present When Mr. Freer's death occurs land will, of course, 

 have to be allotted for the erection of the building — a building which will itself 

 be a gift of great beauty to the Government — and when the building is com- 

 pleted and the collection installed therein, and not before. Congress will have 

 to take some steps to provide the comparatively small sum necessary to take 

 care of what will be a national asset of great value. 



I need hardly say that there are any number of communities and of institu- 

 tions which would be only too glad themselves to promise to erect such a build- 

 ing as that which Mr. Freer is going to erect for the sake of getting this col- 

 lection. The offer is one of the most generous that ever has been made to this 

 Government and the gift is literally beyond price. All that is now aslied is 



