THE GENESIS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 299 



This was done tliiougii Robert Dale Owen, of Indiana, who reported 

 the bill nearly in its final form. John Quincy Adams was a member of 

 the select committee to whom it was referred, together with Mr. Owen, 

 chairman, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. George P. Marsh, Mr. Alexander D. Sims, 

 Mr. Jefferson Davis, and Mr. Wilmot. 



Mr. Adams was now for the first time willing to omit his advocacy 

 of a Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory, the Naval Observatory 

 having now been organized, and being, as Mr. Owen remarked, " at 

 least eqnal in everything but the experience of its observers to the 

 Royal Observatory at Greenwich." 



It is not my purpose to describe the growth of the Smithsonian plan 

 of organization, except in its bearings upon the development of the 

 museum idea. 



In the bill proposed by Robert Dale Owen in 1846 the National In- 

 stitute was recognized to the extent of placing two of its members on 

 the Board of Managers, an arrangement which was continued in the 

 Board of Regents in the Hough bill which finally j)assed. 



An amendment to the Owen bill, proposed by Joseph R. Ingersoll, 

 and passed, and which, had it not been superseded in the Hough bill, 

 would have given the National Institute a strong and perhaps perma- 

 nent hold upon the national collections, read as follows : 



Sec. 5. And be it further enaeted, That, in proportion as suitable ar- 

 rangements can be made for their reception, all objects of art and of 

 foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, 

 and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging or hereafter to 

 belong to the United States, which may be in the city of Washington, 

 in whosesoever custody the same may be, shall be delivered to such per- 

 sons as may be authorized by the Board of Managers to receive them, 

 and shall be arranged in such order, and so classed, as best to facili- 

 tate the examination and study of them, in the buildings so as afore- 

 said to be erected for the institution; and the managers of said insti- 

 tution shall afterwards, as new specimens in natural history, geology, 

 or mineralogy may be obtained for the museum of the institution, by 

 exchanges of duplicate specimens belonging to the institution (which 

 they are hereby authorized to make), or by donation, which they may 

 receive, or otherwise, cause such new specimens to be also ai)propri- 

 ately classed and arranged. And the minerals, books, manuscripts, 

 and other property of James Smithson, which have been received by 

 the Government of tlie United States, and are now placed in the De- 

 partment of State, shall be removed to said institution, and shall be 

 preserved separate and apart from the other property of the institution. 



Sec. 6. A^id he if further enacted^ That the managers of said institu- 

 tion shall appoint a Superintendent, whose duty it shall be to take 

 charge of the ground, buildings, and property belonging to the institu- 

 tion, and carefully preserve the same from injury; and such Superin- 

 tendent shall be the Secretary of the Board of Managers, and shall, 

 under their direction, make a fair and accurate record of all their pro- 

 ceedings, to be preserved in said institution; and the said Superinten- 

 dent shall also discharge the duties of librarian and of keeper of the 

 museum, and may, with the consent of the Board of Managers, employ 

 assistants ; and the said managers shall appoint a professor of agricul- 



