REPORT OP THE SECRETARY 47 



great national shortcoming and stirring the pride of a people not 

 accustomed to take a second or a third place in any field worthy of 

 their ambition. 



The second, with the title " Shall America Have a National 

 Gallery of Art? " was published in The American Magazine of 

 Art for July, 1923. This article is a plea for recognition of the 

 claims of the incipient national gallery upon the American people 

 and seeks to determine and enlist the agencies that may be brought 

 to bear upon the erection of a gallery building. 



The great importance of prompt action becomes apparent when 

 it is recalled that the failure to provide housing for possible ad- 

 ditions to the national collections means a great annual loss to the 

 national gallery — to the Nation. The yearly addition of art works 

 between 1905 and 1920, the latter the date of the complete ex- 

 haustion of gallery space in Museum buildings, averaged upward 

 of half a million a year, while the entire increase per year for the 

 three years since the latter date has fallen below $40,000. The loss 

 to the gallery and to the Nation at this rate, would, in a score of 

 years, amount to a sum equal to the erection of a building worthy 

 of the name, and there can be little doubt that if a gallery building 

 worthy of the name awaited the inflow of gifts and bequests, 

 accessions would reach the substantial figure of half a million per 

 year, as heretofore, or who shall say not twice that figure ? Private 

 owners, seeking a final resting place for their treasures, would 

 doubtless, in many cases, prefer to be represented in a gallery be- 

 longing to the Nation, to all the people alike, than in any other. 

 Our plea, then, the plea of the Smithsonian Institution, is not only 

 a worthy but an urgent one, and is now made to all the people of 

 the Nation, and for all the people of the Nation. 



THE GALLERY COMMISSION 



In 1921, the Eegents of the Institution organized a commission 

 which should devote its attention to the promotion of the gallery's 

 interests in various directions, and the second annual meeting of 

 this commission was held in the Regents' room of the Institution 

 on December 12, 1922. The members present were: Daniel Chester 

 French, chairman; W. K. Bixby; William IT. Holmes, secretary 

 ex officio ; Gari Melchers ; Charles Moore ; James Parmelee ; Edward 

 W. Redfield ; Charles D. Walcott, ex officio. At this meeting numer- 

 ous important problems were considered and steps were taken to 

 enlist national interest in the gallery and its development as an in 

 dispensable national institution. 



The report of the secretary of the commission for the year was 

 followed by reports of the standing, special, and subcommittees, 



