REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1921. 11 
committee think, be usefully introduced. This would supply oppor- 
tunity to examine samples of the best manufactured articles our 
country affords, and to judge her gradual progress in arts and manu- 
factures..,.:*).* 
“The gallery e art, your committee think, should include both 
paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural 
designs; and it is desirable to have in connexion with it one or more 
studios in which young artists might copy without interruption, be- 
ing 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 dur- 
ing the sessions of Coongress as an exhibition room for the works of 
artists generally; and the extent and general usefulness of such an 
exhibit 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 
ethnology 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 
for; (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 co- 
operating 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 
2 Resolved, That it is the chiion of the act of ee es eapiisnine the Tnatitedion: 
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 collec- 
tions 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 knowl- 
edge, to the end that a copious storehcuse of materials of science, literature, and art 
may be provided which shall excite and diffuse the love of learning among men, and shall 
assist the original investigations and efforts of those who may devote themselves to the 
pursuit of any branch of knowledge. 
