i by 4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
to continue to execute faithfully the trust reposed in the United 
States of America by James Smithson, its founder, more than 100 
years ago. 
PROPOSED NEW BUILDINGS 
On October 3, 1945, H. R. 4276, the Public Buildings Act of 1945, 
was introduced in Congress and referred to the Committee on Public 
Buildings and Grounds. The part that concerns the Institution reads 
as follows: 
“Sec. 202. The Federal Works Administrator is hereby authorized, 
under the provisions of the Public Buildings Act of May 25, 1926, as 
amended (40 U. S. C. 341-347), to acquire land where necessary and 
to construct for the Smithsonian Institution the following buildings 
and facilities: 
(a) A building on a suitable site in the Mall for a historical 
museum to include space for the exhibition of the historical collection 
of the Nation, including naval and military collections, memorabilia 
of noted Americans, philately, and numismatics, under a total limit 
of cost of $6,600,000. 
(6) A building for the engineering and industrial collections of 
the Nation, including aviation, under a total limit of cost of $9,150,000. 
(ce) Additional facilities at the National Zoological Park, includ- 
ing an aquarium, a lion house, an antelope house, a monkey house and 
monkey island, and barless pits and paddocks, under a total limit of 
cost of $2,645,000.” 
If this bill becomes a law and the funds authorized are appropri- 
ated, the very extensive and valuable national collections in the fields 
of history and engineering and industries could be properly housed 
and exhibited to the public. The exhibits in these fields, which are 
among the most interesting of all to visitors, are at present crowded 
together in one building erected 67 years ago and now entirely inade- 
quate for the purpose. 
To anticipate slightly the next fiscal year, the President approved 
on August 12, 1946, an act to establish a national air museum as a 
bureau of the Institution and to authorize the appropriation of cer- 
tain funds for the purpose. When funds are made available to carry 
out the purposes of this act, the present intolerably overcrowded con- 
dition of the national aeronautical collections will be alleviated. The 
vitally interesting historical aircraft, engines, and other aeronautical 
material now in the collections are housed in a steel structure built 
during World War I and later turned over to the Institution to ac- 
commodate temporarily the growing aircraft collection. This build- 
ing is now full to overflowing, leaving no space to exhibit material 
illustrating the tremendous recent advances in aeronautics. 
