THE GENEylB OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 287 



tlie Smithsonian orjiauizatiou had l)('eii suggested l)y no one in the live 

 years of discussion which i)receded the org'anization of the iSTatioual 

 Institution, 



It is true that there had been plans proposed, especially those of 

 J)nngiison and Rush, which might have led up to the development of 

 a museum, but tlie value of the museum as an educational agency and 

 as an aid to research was not understood in those days. In its former 

 aspect, it needed the teachings of the great exhibitions from 1S51 to 187(5, 

 in the latter the vivifying influence of the Darwinian scientific renais- 

 sance of 1859. 



The subject of the Smithsonian legacy and its proper dispi^sition was 

 henceforth one of those most frequently discussed by the founders of 

 the National Institution, and for years it Avas the oiiinion of many in- 

 fluential men that this society should be made the custodian of the 

 Smithson fund, and that the interests of the two establishments should 

 be united. 



A vsuggestive indication of the sentiment of the oflicers of th<^ Insti- 

 tution is found in the letter of the committee of management to the 

 Secretaries of War and the Navy in 1842, in which they remark that the 

 object of the Naticmal Institution is " to increase and to diffuse knoivledge 

 among men " — making prominent the words of the Smithsonian bequest 

 instead of the official definition of the objects of their own society, and 

 deliberately indicating the fact of quotation, by the customary symbols. 



The influence of this society was strongly and coutinuously4)resent 

 in (Congress, for the six years which followed its organization, until the 

 Smithsonian act was finally bound, and it seems very appropriate to try 

 to ascertain whose was the master mind which not only ])revailed in 

 finally ingrafting the develo]iment of the National Museum upon tln^ 

 Smithsonian project, but which directly or indirectly led to the forma- 

 tion of the various features of organization which have become such 

 characteristic elements in the Smithsonian plan. 



The controlling mind was evidently that of Joel R. Poinsett, of South 

 Carolina, wlio was Secretary of the Navy in 181(>, and at whose house 

 the society was organized, l)y eight persons, among whom were, of course, 

 Mr. Poinsett, Col. Abert, Mr. Markoe, and Col. Totten. Mr. Poinsett 

 was senior director, under the first ])lan of organization, and occupied 

 the chair at every meeting until, under the amended (constitution, he was 

 elected its first president in 1841. The amendment to the constitution 

 was doubtless made in order to retain his oflicial leadership, fi)r he be- 

 came director ex ojficio wliile Secretary of the Navy. With the close 

 of Van Bureu's administration he became a private citizen, but the 

 constitution was amended before his retirement from the Cabinet, and 

 the position of presiding officer was never prottered to his successor. 



Although from this time on absent from the city, he was retained in 

 the presidency and reelected in 1841, the vice president of the society, 

 Col. Peter Force, continually j)residing in his absence. 



