SECRETARY’S REPORT 203 
Two traveling exhibitions (including 71 plates) with 14 bookings 
in 11 States were circulated by the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibi- 
tion Service. 
Four traveling exhibitions (including 110 plates) with 7 bookings in 
Virginia were circulated by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. 
One traveling exhibition (including 80 plates) was circulated by 
the United States Information Agency in Germany. 
CURATORIAL ACTIVITIES 
The curatorial department accessioned 1,388 gifts to the Gallery 
during the fiscal year 1958. Advice was given regarding 341 works 
of art brought to the Gallery for expert opinion and nine visits to col- 
lections were made by members of the staff in connection with offers 
of gifts or for expert opinion. About 2,150 inquiries requiring re- 
search were answered verbally and by letter. 
Dr. Perry B. Cott, chief curator, was a guest of the Federal Re- 
public of Germany for a 4-week tour of German museums with a 
group of American museum officials. Dr. Cott gave the following 
lectures during the year: “Some German Art Centers Revisited— 
1957” before the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore, Md., and “Ob- 
servations on Italian and Spanish Painting in the Samuel H. Kress 
Collection” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Tex. He also 
spoke on “Business and the Arts” on the occasion of the opening of 
the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, 
Memphis, Tenn. Dr. Erwin O. Christensen, curator of decorative 
arts, gave seven lectures to USIA groups and two lectures to National 
Education Association schoolteachers on the Index of American De- 
sign. Miss Elizabeth Mongan, curator of graphic arts, spoke on 
Blake at the Cosmopolitan Club in Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. Hereward 
Lester Cooke, museum curator, spoke on the Gallery LecTour at the 
annual meeting of the American Association of Museums in Charles- 
ton, S.C. Dr. Katharine Shepard, assistant curator of graphic arts, 
gave a talk on print techniques to a group of young women from the 
Washington area. Miss Elizabeth Benson, assistant registrar, spoke 
to a group of women from the Washington area on “Venice in 
Painting.” 
William P. Campbell, curator of painting, assisted in the judging 
of art exhibitions sponsored by the National League of American Pen 
Women and the Delmarva Chicken Festival, Denton, Md. Thomas 
P. Baird, museum curator, assisted in the judging of exhibitions for 
the Christmas Greens on Capitol Hill, the Arts Club of Washington, 
St. John’s Church, Georgetown, Church of the Blessed Sacrament, 
Chevy Chase, and an exhibition held in The Plains, Va. 
