REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 9 
try affords, and to judge her gradual progress in arts and manu- 
fachuressiy*7. %,,* 
“The gallery of art, your committee think, should include both 
paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural de- 
signs; and it is desirable to have in connexion with it one or more 
studios in which young artists might copy without interruption, being 
admitted under such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your 
committee also think that, as the collection of paintings and sculpture 
will probably accumulate slowly, the room destined for a gallery of 
art might properly and usefully meanwhile be occupied during the 
sessions of Congress as an exhibition room for the works of artists 
generally ; and the extent and general usefulness of such an exhibition 
might probably be increased if an arrangement could be effected with 
the Academy of Design, the Arts-Union, the Artists’ Fund Society, 
and other associations of similar character, so as to concentrate at the 
metropolis for a certain portion of each winter the best results of 
talent in the fine arts.” 
The important points in the foregoing report are (1) that it was 
the opinion of the Regents that a museum was requisite under the 
law, Congress having left no discretion in the matter; (2) that eth- 
nology and anthropology, though not specially named, were yet as 
important subjects as natural history; (3) that the history of the 
progress of useful inventions and the collection of the raw materials 
and products of the manufactures and arts should also be provided 
or; (4) for the gallery of art the committee had models in existence, 
and they proposed, pending the gathering of art collections, which 
would of necessity be slow, to provide for loan exhibitions by coop- 
erating with art academies and societies. 
In the resolutions which were adopted upon the presentation of the 
report, a museum was mentioned as ‘‘one of the principal modes of 
executing the act and trust.” The work was to go forward as the 
funds permitted, and, as is well known, the maintenance of the 
museum and the library was long ago assumed by Congress, the 
Institution taking upon itself only so much of the necessary responsi- 
bility for the administration of these and subsequent additions 
to its activities as would weld them into a compact whole, which 
together form a unique and notable agency for the increase and diffu- 
‘Resolved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress establishing the Institution, 
and in accordance with the design of Mr. Smithson, as expressed in his will, that 
one of the principal modes of executing the act and the trust is the accumulation 
of collections of specimens and objects of natural history and of elegant art, and the 
gradual formation of a library of valuable works pertaining to all departments of 
human knowledge, to the end that a copious storehouse of materials of science, litera- 
ture, and art may be provided which shall excite and diffuse the love of learning 
among men, and shall assist the original pee saeerons and efforts of those who may 
devote Pidegeelees to the pursuit of any branch of knowledge. 
