12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 5 



portant staff changes were the advancement of John E. Graf from 

 Associate Director of the Museum to Assistant Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution; the appointment of Dr. Raymond M. 

 Gilmore as associate curator in the division of mammals, William E. 

 Hoffmann, associate curator in the division of insects, Robert A. Elder, 

 Jr., as assistant curator in the division of ethnology, and Mrs. Mildred 

 S. Wilson as assistant curator in the division of marine invertebrates. 



National Gallery of Art. — The year's attendance at the Gallery was 

 the largest since it was opened in 1941, the total being 2,078,739. 

 Approximately 35 percent of these were men and women in the armed 

 services. Sunday night openings with free concerts continued 

 throughout the year with undiminished popularity. In October 1944 

 the Gallery published a book, Masterpieces of Painting from the 

 National Gallery of Art, which contained 85 color reproductions of 

 paintings in the collections. The public demand was so great that 

 a second edition was being printed at the close of the year. A 

 contract was entered into for the completion of six new galleries for 

 exhibition of recent acquisitions of paintings and sculpture. All 

 the works of art in protective storage in North Carolina during the 

 war were brought back to the Gallery without damage in October 

 1944. Gifts included 80 important Italian, French, and Dutch paint- 

 ings and 2G pieces of sculpture from Samuel H. Kress and the Samuel 

 H. Kress Foundation, and a number of other paintings from various 

 donors, as well as 1,740 prints and drawings from Lessing J. Rosen- 

 wald, and others from a number of donors. Twelve special exhibitions 

 were held at the Gallery, including several of war paintings. Travel- 

 ing exhibitions from the Index of American Design and the Rosenwald 

 collection of prints were sent to art institutions in various parts of 

 the country. The Gallery tours attracted more than 15,000 people, 

 and nearly 27,000 attended the daily 10-minute lectures on the "Picture 

 of the Week." 



National Collection of Fine Arts. — The twenty-second annual meet- 

 ing of the Smithsonian Art Commission was held on December 5, 

 1944, the annual meetings scheduled for the 2 previous years having 

 been canceled on account of transportation conditions. A number 

 of oil paintings and other art works that had been submitted since 

 the last meeting in 1941 were accepted. The Commission adopted 

 resolutions on the death of three former members, John E. Lodge 

 in 1942, and Charles L. Borie and Dr. Frederick P. Keppel in 1943. 

 Officers elected for the coming year were: Paul Manship, chairman; 

 Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., vice chairman; and Dr. Alexander Wet- 

 more, secretary. Seven miniatures were acquired through the Cathe- 

 rine Walden Myer fund. A number of paintings were lent to other 

 organizations, including two to the White House, one of these — Max 

 Weyl's "Indian Summer Day" — to be hung in President Truman's 



