Report on the National Collection of 
Fine Arts 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activities 
of the National Collection of Fine Arts for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1959: 
SMITHSONIAN ART COMMISSION 
The 36th annual meeting of the Smithsonian Art Commission was 
held in the Regents Room of the Smithsonian Building on Tuesday, 
December 2, 1958. Members present were Paul Manship, chairman; 
Robert Woods Bliss, vice chairman; Leonard Carmichael, secretary ; 
Gilmore D. Clarke, David E. Finley, Walter Hancock, Bartlett Hayes, 
Henry P. McIlhenny, Ogden M. Pleissner, Charles Sawyer, Stow 
Wengenroth, and Andrew Wyeth. Thomas M. Beggs, Director, Na- 
tional Collection of Fine Arts, was also present. 
A resolution on the death of George Hewitt Myers, a member of the 
Commission from 1944 until his death on December 23, 1957, was 
unanimously adopted. 
Dr. Finley, chairman, reported for the executive committee that, as 
a result of balloting by mail, the Commission recommended Wilmarth 
S. Lewis to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George Hewitt 
Myers. 
The Commission recommended reappointment of Gilmore D. Clarke, 
Stow Wengenroth, and Andrew Wyeth for the usual 4-year period. 
The following officers were reelected for the ensuing year: Paul 
Manship, chairman; Robert Woods Bliss, vice chairman; and Leonard 
Carmichael, secretary. 
The following were reelected members of the executive committee 
for the ensuing year: David E. Finley, chairman; Robert Woods Bliss, 
Gilmore D. Clarke, and Archibald G. Wenley, with Paul Manship and 
Leonard Carmichael, ex officio. 
A motion was passed that the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 
be asked to appoint a committee to advise in the development of plans 
for adapting the Civil Service Commission Building, formerly the 
Old Patent Office Building, to the needs of a National Portrait Gal- 
lery, and to prepare legislation concerning such. 
It was further resolved that the chairman of the Smithsonian Art 
Commission shall appoint from its membership a subcommittee, includ- 
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