SECRETARY'S REPORT 3 
The objective of the new museum development at the Smithsonian 
is to display examples of the mineral and biological resources of our 
nation and of the world and to epitomize the human achievements 
that have made our country great and strong. 
More than 60 years ago a notable museum scholar, George Brown 
Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, defined 
a museum as “an institution for the preservation of those objects which 
best illustrate the phenomena of nature and the works of man, and 
the utilization of these for the increase of knowledge and for the 
culture and enlightenment of the people.” This fundamental con- 
ception has not changed with the years. But methods and techniques 
for meeting this objective do change. Dr. Goode further stated, 
“The museum of the past must be set aside, reconstructed, transformed 
from a cemetery of bric-a-brac into a nursery of living thoughts. 
The museum of the future must stand side by side with the library 
and the laboratory ... as one of the principal agencies for the en- 
lightenment of the people.” What could better describe what has 
been going on in the Smithsonian’s museums during recent years? 
Those who have these renovations in charge are trying to give the 
Smithsonian educational exhibitions that are appropriate and ade- 
quate to the mental outlook of a 20th-century America. 
In the Smithsonian’s new Museum of History and Technology 
building, now under construction, there will be displayed from our 
vast collections the truly breathtaking story of the rise and inter- 
related growth of the civilian, military, and technological aspects of 
American life. In this building the relationship of pure and applied 
science will be presented in an effective way, patterned to some extent 
upon the manner in which this relationship is so well displayed in a 
number of great Kuropean museums. In the new Smithsonian build- 
ing, however, the strands that have been woven together in the mak- 
ing of our modern American civilization will be shown in a way that 
it is hoped will be unique and particularly appropriate to the special 
genius of our country. 
The existing exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution and the new 
exhibits now being planned can be thought of as significant not only 
in the knowledge but also in the motivation that they may instill in 
many of the millions of high-school visitors who come to the Smith- 
sonian each year. In a free society, boys and girls are not drafted 
and forced to study mathematics or physics or any other subject that 
may be required by the state. Our society depends upon the slower, 
but certainly in the long run the sounder, technique of first arousing 
the students’ interest and then providing them with needed edu- 
cational opportunities. Certainly great museums, such as those 
directed by the Smithsonian, are able in an important way to inspire 
