38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



lections, so that only a very small sum was available for improvements 

 in the exhibition halls. 



THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART COMMISSION 



The seventeenth annual meeting of the National Gallery of Art 

 Commission was held on December 7, 1937. The members met at 

 10 : 30 at the rooms of the National Collection of Fine Arts, in the 

 Natural History Building, where, as the advisory committee on the 

 acceptance of works of art which had been submitted during the 

 year, they accepted the following: 



A wood gravure of "Rockwell Studio," by Macowin Tuttle. Gift of Mrs. Mary 

 E. Lathrop, Rockford, 111. 



The members then proceeded to the Smithsonian Building, where 

 the annual meeting was called to order by the chairman, Mr. Borie. 

 The members present were: Charles L. Borie, Jr., chairman; Frank 

 Jewett Mather, Jr., vice chairman; Dr. Charles G. Abbot (ex officio), 

 secretary; and Herbert Adams, Gifford Beal, George H. Edgell, 

 James E. Fraser, John E. Lodge, Paul Manship, George B. Mc- 

 Clellan, Edward W. Eeclfield, and Mahonri M. Young. Kuel P. 

 Tolman, curator of the Division of Graphic Arts in the United States 

 National Museum and acting director of the National Collection of 

 Fine Arts, was also present. 



The following resolutions on the death of Mr. Andrew W. Mellon 

 were submitted and adopted, and Secretary Abbot was requested 

 to convey a copy to Mr. Mellon's family : 



Whereas the National Gallery of Art Commission has learned of the death, 

 on August 26, 1937, of Andrew W. Mellon, a member of this Commission since 

 1934 ; therefore be it 



Resolved, That the Commission records its sincere sorrow at the passing of 

 Mr. Mellon, who devoted many years of his long life to assembling an excep- 

 tionally fine collection of paintings and sctdpture. With patriotic generosity 

 he gave in 1937 this outstanding collection of masterpieces to the Smithsonian 

 Institution for the United States with the hope that Washington would become 

 the art center of the world. At the same time he provided funds for a monu- 

 mental marble building to be known as the National Gallery of Art, and 

 arranged for an endowment, proposed to be $5,000,000. No other gift of art 

 has ever equalled this one. 



Mr. Mellon had a deep interest also in the great building program of the 

 Government, and did much, as Secretary of the Treasury, to promote it. Al- 

 though he lived to a great age, the Commission deeply deplores the untimely 

 death of Mr. Mellon before he could see and enjoy the full fruition of his work 

 and his beneficence. 



Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the records of the Commission 

 and that the Secretary be requested to convey a copy to the family of Mr. 

 Mellon. 



The Commission recommended to the Board of Regents the name 

 of David E. Finley to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. 

 Mellon. 



