REPORT ON THE PROGRESS AND CONDITION 
OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
| FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1921. 
By WILLIAM DEC. RAVENEL, 
Administrative Assistant to the Secretary, 
In charge of the United States 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 time the Government bore a share, and during the past 40 
years 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 10 years’ dis- 
cussion in Congress and the advice of the most distinguished scientific 
men, educators, and intellectual leaders of the Nation of 75 years 
ago. It is interesting to note how broad and comprehensive were the 
views which actuated our lawmakers in determining 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 geo- 
logical and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States,” 
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