8 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1911. 



States," thus stamping the Museum at the very outset as one of the 

 widest range and at the same time as the Museum of the United 

 States. It was also fully appreciated that additions would be neces- 

 sary to the collections then in existence, and provision was made for 

 their increase by the exchange of duplicate specimens, by donations, 

 and by other means. 



If the wisdom of Congress in so fully providing for a museum in 

 the Smithsonian law challenges attention, the interpretation put upon 

 this law by the Board of Regents within less than six months from 

 the passage of the act can not but command admiration. In the early 

 part of September, 1846, the Regents took steps toward formulating 

 a plan of operations. The report of the committee appointed for this 

 purpose, submitted in December and January following, shows a 

 thorough consideration of the subject in both the spirit and letter of 

 the law. It would seem not out of place to cite here the first pro- 

 nouncement of the board with reference to the character of the 

 Museum : 



" In obedience to the requirements of the charter, 1 which leaves 

 little discretion in regard to the extent of accommodations to be 

 provided, your committee recommend that there be included in the 

 building a museum of liberal size, fitted up to receive the collections 

 destined for the Institution. * * * 



"As important as the cabinets of natural history by the charter re- 

 quired to be included in the Museum your committee regard its ethno- 

 logical portion, including all collections that may supply items in the 

 physical history of our species, and illustrate the manners, customs, 

 religions, and progressive advance of the various nations of the world ; 

 as, for example, collections of skulls, skeletons, portraits, dresses, 

 implements, weapons, idols, antiquities, of the various races of 

 man. * * * In this connexion, your committee recommend the 

 passage of resolutions asking the cooperation of certain public func- 

 tionaries, and of the public generally, in furtherance of -the above 

 objects. 



" Your committee are further of opinion that in the Museum, if 

 the funds of the Institution permit, might judiciously be included 

 various series of models illustrating the progress of some of the most 

 useful inventions; such, for example, as the steam engine from its 

 earliest and rudest form to its present most improved state; but this 

 they propose only so far as it may not encroach on ground already 

 covered by the numerous models in the Patent Office. 



" Specimens of staple materials, of their gradual manufacture, and 

 of the finished product of manufactures and the arts may also, your 



1 Since the Institution was not chartered in a legal sense but established by 

 Congress, the use of the word " charter " in this connection was not correct. 



