REPORT 



OF THE 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



Charles D. Walcott 



FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1923 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 



Gentlemen : I have the honor to submit herewith the customary 

 annual report showing the activities and condition of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution and its branches during the fiscal year ending 

 June 30, 1923. The first 26 pages of the report contain an account 

 of the affairs of the Institution proper, with brief abstracts of the 

 work carried on by the various branches of the Institution, while 

 Appendixes 1 to 10 give more detailed reports of the operations of 

 the United States National Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the 

 Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the 

 International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the 

 Astrophysical Observatory, the United States Regional Bureau of 

 the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the Smith- 

 sonian Library, and of the publications of the Institution and its 

 branches. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 

 land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 

 America " to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." In receiving the property and accepting 

 the trust Congress determined that the Federal Government was 

 without authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore 

 constituted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the 

 President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of 

 the executive departments." 



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