THE GENESIS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 307 



tional Institution, the first iu Washiugtou to bear au official title which 

 has since been the designation of a goodly number of worthy workers 

 in science. 



Tlie curator, although an elective officer of the Institution, received 

 his pay from the Congressional appropriation already referred to, an 

 arrangement not unlike that which prevails to this day in thel^atioual 

 Museum, where the officers, chosen by the Smithsonian Institution, are 

 l>aid by the General Government. 



The collections arrived some time in March, and in response to its re- 

 quest Mr. Badger, the newly made Secretary of the Navy, placed them 

 under the care of the National Institution, and in April, as we learn 

 from tlie unpublished letters of the curator, the taxidermists were pre- 

 paring about fifteen bird skins a day, a rate of speed which quite ex- 

 l)lains tlie atrocious condition of the preparations which have come 

 down to us from those days of the infancy of the National Museum. In 

 May additional collections, brought by the ship Suzanne to New York 

 and thence trans-shipped by the schooner Palestine, were received in 

 Washington. 



A new danger now threatened the integrity of the collections, which 

 was that the curator found many of the boxes "marked in such a man- 

 ner as to indicate that they belong to and are claimed by private per- 

 sons," these constituting a large part of the whole. 



Here, again, Mr. Poinsett had foreseen and provided against the dan- 

 ger, having instructed the curator, on a previous occasion, to pay no 

 attention to private marks on collections received from a Government 

 expedition. 



The question was submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, who at once 

 replied that, in his opinion, " all specimens collected by officers attached 

 to the expedition belonged solely to the United States." 



In April, 1841, the collections and library of the Institution were 

 installed in the new Patent Office building, where they remained until 

 removed to the Smithsonian, in 1857. 



Extensive plans were made for a system of international exchange, 

 and a committee formulated the policy of the society in an elaborate 

 report. 



Another Government collection soon came in consisting of the mine- 

 rals and geological specimens gathered by David Dale Owen, during his 

 survey under the direction of the United States General Land Office, 

 also a collection of "Indian portraits and curiosities" transferred by 

 the Secretary of War, and the Smithson cabinet, books and minerals, 

 deposited by the Secretary of the Treasury, a;nd a bill was passed by 

 Congress, less important by reason of the appropriation of $500, which 



Directions for iiiakiug Collections in Natural History. Prepared for the National 

 Institution for the Promotion of Science; by H. King, M. D.— Washington. Printed 

 by Gales & Seaton. 1840. 8vo., \>\>. 1-24.] 



Dr. King was elected curator March 8, 1X41, and held the office until September 

 12, 1842, when he was succeeded by Dr. Charles Pickering. 



