18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



The Board then adopted a resolution electing Dr. Alexander Wet- 

 more as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Resolutions were adopted by the Board regarding a study of the 

 business management and future policies of the Institution. 



In a special statement Dr. Wetmore outlined to the Board recent 

 activities carried on by all branches of the Institution. 



FINANCES 



A statement on finances will be found in the report of the executive 

 committee of the Board of Regents, page 115. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



August 10, 1946, will be the one-hundredth birthday of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. On that same date in 1846 the act was signed that 

 established the Institution, culminating 8 years of debate in Congress 

 as to how best to carry out the wishes of James Smithson, the English 

 scientist who bequeathed his fortune to the United States of America 

 "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men." In a human life the passage of a century brings vener- 

 able old age and usually the end of useful activity ; for an organization 

 such as the Smithsonian it merely marks the end of a conventional 

 period of time and the beginning of a new period which must see the 

 Institution continue to develop and expand in the furtherance of its 

 stated objectives. 



Such an anniversary clearly calls for a fitting celebration, and for 

 the past several years plans have been shaping up. About the time 

 these plans would have crystallized, however, the Nation was forced 

 to go to war, and all such matters had to be held in abeyance. With 

 the end of the war definite plans will be announced by the committee 

 of the Board of Regents appointed to select the final form that the 

 celebration will take. 



THIRTEENTH ARTHUR LECTURE 



Under the terms of the will of the late James Arthur, of New York, 

 the Smithsonian Institution received in 1931 a fund, part of the in- 

 come from which should be used for an annual lecture on some aspect 

 of the science of the sun. 



The thirteenth Arthur lecture was given by Matthew W. Stirling, 

 Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, on January 17, 1945, 

 under the title "Sun Lore of the Indians." The lecture will be pub- 

 lished, with illustrations, in the Report of the Smithsonian Institution 

 for 1945. 



