SECRETARY'S REPORT 37 
13 periodicals, and 420 bulletins. Of the 1,762 books borrowed and 
returned during the year, the Library of Congress lent 1,676 books to 
the Gallery on the usual interlibrary loan basis, and the remaining 
86 books were borrowed from 25 public and university libraries. 
INDEX OF AMERICAN DESIGN 
During the year the Index of American Design continued to expand 
as the result of gifts and exchanges. Three hundred and thirty-six 
persons studied Index material at the Gallery; of this number, 301 
were new users and 25 revisited the collection for study purposes. 
The use of photographs of Index drawings was increased by about 
40 percent, with 1,796 photographs being sent out on loan, exchange, 
or purchase. Fifty exhibitions of original water-color renderings 
were circulated in 25 States. 
PRESIDENT TRUMAN’S INAUGURAL RECEPTION 
On January 20, 1949, the President’s Inaugural Reception was 
held in the National Gallery of Art. The Seventh Street ground 
floor and main floor lobbies were especially furnished and decorated 
for the occasion; the rotunda and the two garden courts were appro- 
priately decorated with flowers; under arrangements made by the 
White House staff, a platform was built in the West Sculpture Hall 
where the President addressed the guests who could not be received 
personally in the West Garden Court. Three sections of the Marine 
Band Orchestra played during the reception. The total number of 
guests was approximately 8,000. 
CUSTODY OF GERMAN PAINTINGS 
On April 6, 1949, the Gallery accepted custody of the 97 paintings 
from Berlin museums which had been on an exhibition tour of the 
United States, part of the group of 202 German paintings stored in 
the Gallery building by the Department of the Army from December 
1945 to March 1948. After the last exhibition of this collection of 
paintings in Toledo, Ohio, the collection was brought to Washington 
and stored in the Gallery for about 2 weeks pending final shipping 
arrangements. On April 20, 1949, the collection was delivered to 
the Army for return to the American Zone in Germany. 
The exhibition of the Berlin paintings in 13 museums throughout 
the United States resulted in the collection of $303,605.35 through ad- 
mission fees and voluntary contributions for the relief of German 
children in the American Zone in Germany. ‘These funds were de- 
posited with the Gallery and were later disbursed in accordance with 
instructions received from the Department of the Army. During the 
tour 1,307,001 persons viewed the paintings, in addition to 964,970 
