320 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



for the purpose of i)reparing an account of it, in such person as the 

 Joint Library Committee shoukl appoint. This committee appointed 

 Capt. Wilkes, of the Navy, for tliat purpose, who is now exercising the 

 functions of his office, and who may with propriety be considered as in 

 the reguhir official possession of the room. 



In all this one sees nothing of the Patent Office or of the " National 

 Gallery" or of any charge direct or indirect of the Patent Office over 

 the deposits referred to. If therefore by "National Gallery" is in- 

 tended to designate the room in which are now placed the deposits of 

 the Institute and of the exploring squadron, it is not a room over which 

 the head of the Patent Office can exercise control. 



By a law of the 20th July, 1810, the Secretaries of the War and Navy 

 Departments were placed in charge of the specimens of natural history, 

 received and to be received by them, and funds were appropriated for 

 their preservation. The officers have deposited such articles as were 

 then in their possession, and sucli have since been received in the care 

 of the National Institute, as that law and the practice under it are con- 

 sidered as i^rescribing the course on these subjects, and in the 2d sec- 

 tion of the law of July 27, I<SI2, all these dei)osits and the principle 

 upou which they were made were confirmed and legalized. When 

 therefore the copper work arrived, to which your letter refers, the hon- 

 orable Secretary of War, in conformity of law and usage, placed it un- 

 der the care of the National Institute. 



As it was understood to be rather an inconvenience to Capt. Wilkes 

 from the want of space to receive any more articles of the Institute in 

 the hall under his care, and as the Institute has at present no curator 

 there, those boxes and articles which have come to hand within the 

 last few months have been temporarily deposited elsewhere, and among 

 others the copper rock. The committee of the Institute which received 

 this rock had it deposited in the War Office yard, where it is accessi- 

 ble without impediment to all who are disposed to examine it, and 

 where it is under the efficient protection of the guard of the War and 

 Navy Department buildings. 



Very respectfully, your obt. svt., 



J. J. Abekt, 

 Ch. Com. Nat. Inst. 



H. L. Ellsworth, Esqr., 



Commr. of Patents^ WashimjtoH. 



Letter from the (Jonitnis.sioner of Patcnls to Col. Abert, Decemher 7, 1843. 



Patent Office, Decemher 7, 1843. 



Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 5tli iust. 



The Honorable Secretary of War has, it seems, referred to the Chair- 

 man of the Committee of the National Institute the answer of my letter 

 to his Department, offering to receive for exhibition at the National 

 Gallery the '^Copper rock". 



I can not withhold my suri)rise or the expression of my regret that 

 the Committee of the Institute on the reference of my letter deemed it 

 necessary to declare their unwillingness to recognize any such place as 

 the "National Gallery" under my care and to (piestion the right of the 

 Commissioner of Patents to the use of the large Hall in the Patent 

 Office building, and still more at their claim of right to use that Hall 

 when their accommodations were only enjoyed at the convenience of the 



