^2 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



physical Observatory, and (6) the library of the National Zoological 

 Park. The Bureau of Ethnology Library, together with the business 

 offices of the Bureau, was during the past year transferred to the 

 Smithsonian building, where it is more accessible than heretofore for 

 reference. 



The total additions to these several libraries during the year aggre- 

 gated more than 23,000 volumes, pamphlets, and serial publications. 



The library of the National Museum, which is subdivided into 31 

 sectional libraries for the convenience of the several departments and 

 divisions, now numbers 38,300 volumes, 61,858 unbound papers, and 

 110 manuscripts, and the Bureau of Ethnology library contains 16,050 

 volumes, 11,600 pamphlets, several thousand periodicals, and a large 

 collection of manuscripts. 



The Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress was increased 

 by the addition of 2,653 volumes, 2,879 parts of volumes, 1,396 pam- 

 phlets, and 623 charts, the total accession entries now having reached 

 the half -million mark. This library is becoming more and more val- 

 uable as the sets of transactions and memoirs of the learned institu- 

 tions of the world and of scientific periodicals are each year made 

 more complete. 



There was published during the year a bibliography of aeronautics, 

 prepared by the assistant librarian. This work contains references to 

 about 13,500 books or papers on that subject, most of which are avail- 

 able for reference in Washington, the collection of aeronautical litera- 

 ture in the Smithsonian office library having been greatly increased in 

 recent years. 



THE LANGLEY MEDAL. 



In memory of the late Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley and his 

 contributions to the science of aerodromics, the Board of Regents on 

 December 15, 1908, established the Langley medal, " to be awarded 

 for specially meritorious investigations in connection with the science 

 of aerodromics and its application to aviation." 



As stated in my last report, the first award of the medal was voted 

 by the Board of Regents to Wilbur and Orville Wright, " for advanc- 

 ing the science of aerodromics in its application to aviation by their 

 successful investigations and by their successful demonstrations of the 

 practicability of mechanical flight by man." 



The brothers Wright were immediately communicated with in 

 France and accepted an invitation to be present at the Board meeting 

 of February 10, 1910, to receive the medals in person. On the date 

 mentioned they were introduced to the Board and the formal presen- 

 tation was made. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell reviewed the progress 

 made in the science of aviation by the investigations and experiments 



