40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



The Sunday night suppers for servicemen continued during the 

 year and were enjoyed by approximately 1,700 service men and women. 

 Funds to defray the cost of the suppers were contributed by members 

 of the Gallery staff and by friends of the Gallery. 



The film "National Gallery of Art" was made available during the 

 year to 17 individuals and institutions. 



The Inter-American Office has continued during the year to carry 

 out the Latin-American art program of the Department of State 

 through the exchange of exhibitions, the distribution of art materials 

 and publications, and the assembling of information on Inter- Amer- 

 ican art activities. Major exhibitions were organized and sent to 

 seven countries in Latin America. 



With the cooperation of the Library of Congress, the Inter-Amer- 

 ican Office edited the directory to Latin-American art activities orig- 

 inally prepared by the Archive of Hispanic Culture, for publication 

 in the forthcoming issue of the American Art Manual for the years 

 1942-45. The Inter- American Office has also compiled a list of circu- 

 lating exhibitions of Latin American art in the United States, which 

 will be available for distribution in the early autumn of 1945. 



A total of 188 special permits to copy paintings in the National 

 Gallery of Art were issued during the fiscal year 1945, and during 

 the same period 75 special permits were issued to photograph paintings. 



CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT 



The curatorial work during the fiscal year consisted of installing 

 new gifts, particularly the additional items of the Samuel H. Kress 

 collection, and reinstallation of the evacuated works of art returned 

 from Biltmore, N. C. ; work on the new Gallery catalog and the photo- 

 graphic record of the Gallery collections; assisting the American 

 Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic 

 Monuments in War Areas by providing information on damaged and 

 looted works of art in war areas; assisting in the publication of the 

 book "Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art," 

 edited by Huntington Cairns and John Walker ; collaborating in the 

 publication of the book "Drawings for Ariosto by Fragonard" ; com- 

 pletion of a "Handbook of the Widener Collection of Decorative 

 Arts"; completion of one catalog and three pamphlets in the series 

 dealing with important works in the collection ; and the cataloging of 

 the Richter Photographic Archives and the Strauss collection of photo- 

 graphs. Seven members of the staff contributed 14 articles to peri- 

 odicals, and three members of the staff lectured 13 times on six subjects. 



During the year approximately 1,903 works of art were submitted 

 to the Acquisitions Committee (including 1,740 prints from the Rosen- 

 wald collection) with recommendation regarding their acceptability 



