REPORT 



THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS OF THE U, S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 DURING THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905, 



By Richard Rathbun, 

 Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the U. X. National Museum. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The establishment of a museum for this Government, which was 

 intended to embrace all of the national collections, was provided for 

 in the act of Congress of August 10, 1840, founding the Smithsonian 

 Institution, as follows: 



Whenever suitable arrangements can be made from time to time for their reception, all 

 objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects of natural history, plants, 

 and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States, which may he 

 in the city of Washington, in whosoever custody they may he, shall he delivered to such 

 persons as may be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive them, and shall he so 

 arranged and classified in the building erected for the Institution as best to facilitate the 

 examination and study of them; and whenever new specimens in natural history, geology, 

 or mineralogy are obtained for the museum of the Institution, by exchanges of duplicate 

 specimens, which the Regents may in their discretion make, or by donation, which they 

 may receive, or otherwise, the Regents shall cause such new specimens to be appropriately 

 classed and arranged. 



The Smithsonian fund at the time it was turned over to the United 

 States in 1838 amounted to about $515,000, but by 1840 interest had 

 accrued to the extent of about 8240, 000 additional. The latter sum 

 was made immediately available for the construction of a building 

 and for other purposes incidental to the first equipment of the Insti- 

 tution, but the principal, invested by the Government, was to 

 remain intact, only the interest therefrom to be applied to future 

 operations. For the period in question this endowment was, with 

 perhaps one or two exceptions, larger than that of any other learned 

 establishment in America, and Congress was led to believe that the 

 income would be sufficient to meet all the requirements it had 

 imposed. Events which soon followed showed, however, that this 

 view was not justified, and in 1857, when the completion of the 

 Smithsonian building rendered possible the transfer of the specimens 

 from the Patent Office, Congress found it necessary to aid the Insti- 



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