REPORT ON THE PROGRESS AND CONDITION OF 
THE U. 8. NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR THE 
YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1910. 
By Ricuarp RarTuesun, 
Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
in charge of the U. S. National Museum. 
INCEPTION AND HISTORY. 
The Congress of the United States, in the act of August 10, 1846, 
founding the Smithsonian Institution, recognized that an opportunity 
was afforded, in carrying out the large-minded design of Smithson, 
to provide for the custody of the museum of the Nation. To this 
new establishment was therefore intrusted the care of the national 
collections, a course that time has fully justified. 
In the beginning the cost of maintaining the museum side of the 
Institution’s work was wholly paid from the Smithsonian income; 
then for a number of years the Government bore a share, and during 
the past three decades Congress has voted the entire funds for the 
expenses of the Museum, thus furthering one of the primary means 
‘‘for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men”’ without 
encroaching upon the resources of the Institution. 
The museum idea was inherent in the establishment of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, which in its turn was based upon a ten years’ 
discussion in Congress and the advice of the most distinguished 
scientific men, educators, and intellectual leaders of the Nation of 
seventy years ago. It is interesting to note how broad and com- 
prehensive were the views which actuated our lawmakers in deter- 
mining the scope of the Museum, a fact especially remarkable when 
it is recalled that at that date no museum of considerable size 
existed in the United States, and the museums of England and of the 
continent of Europe were still to a large extent without a developed 
plan, although containing many rich collections. 
The Congress which passed the act of foundation enumerated as 
within the scope of the Museum ‘‘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,”’ thus stamping the Museum at the very outset as one of the 
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