REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 9 
throng the Museum buildings every day, a special exhibit was opened 
on August 10 in the foyer of the Natural History Building. In sepa- 
rate alcoves were presented graphically by means of maps, photo- 
graphs, specimens, and publications the various phases of Smithsonian 
work during the past 100 years. The alcoves covered origin and his- 
tory, research, exploration, publications, art, and custodianship of 
the national collections. 
POSITION OF THE INSTITUTION AFTER 100 YEARS 
Before surveying the Institution’s present position, I will introduce 
the subject by quoting a part of my general statement printed in the 
August 9 issue of Science, which was devoted to the Smithsonian 
Centennial. 
“On August 10, 1846, the Smithsonian Institution came into being 
when James K. Polk, President of the United States, affixed his signa- 
ture to the act of its foundation. For 100 years the Smithsonian has 
carried forward Smithson’s ideal through scientific research in many 
fields, through world-wide exploration, through publications embody- 
ing the results of original investigation, and through other accepted 
methods of increasing and diffusing information. 
“At the middle of the last century, Washington, the capital of our 
Nation, was a small city of some 50,000 inhabitants. Great expanses 
of unoccupied land lay beyond the Appalachian Mountains, and the 
detailed exploration of the vast area beyond the Missouri River was 
under way. The American Philosophical Society met in Philadelphia, 
certain other societies with scientific interests had been organized, and 
small natural history museums existed in a few centers, such as 
Harvard College and Charleston. Science in any of its branches was 
at best an avocation in this New World, except to a few individuals, 
and those Americans who had opportunity or leisure for scientific 
studies looked almost wholly for guidance to the Old World, whence 
they or their immediate ancestors had come. Into such a setting came 
the new Smithsonian Institution, to support and encourage scientific 
and cultural knowledge and to give to American science a powerful 
and far-reaching stimulus. 
“Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian, set up a wise 
and far-seeing plan of organization, effective in the sound basic prin- 
ciples on which it rested, embodying close cooperation with other 
agencies and individuals, and looking to the cumulative advancement 
of knowledge. After Henry came Spencer Fullerton Baird, biologist, 
as second Secretary; then Samuel Pierpont Langley, astronomer and 
pioneer in aeronautical research ; Charles Doolittle Walcott, geologist 
and paleontologist; and Charles Greeley Abbot, astrophysicist—all 
