REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
ALEXANDER WETMORE 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1948 
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 
GrentLEeMEN: I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 
ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and its 
bureaus during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1948. 
GENERAL STATEMENT 
The Institution carries out its purpose, “the increase and diffusion 
of knowledge among men,” by numerous methods, but the basic means 
remain the same as those proposed by the first Secretary, Joseph 
Henry—namely, scientific research, exploration, and publication. 
These features interweave to form the pattern of activities of the 
Institution and of the scientific bureaus that have grown up around 
it and through which it now largely operates. Other features have 
been added as the Institution has grown and expanded—for example, 
museum and art gallery exhibits, which diffuse knowledge to several 
million visitors each year, and the International Exchange Service 
for the interchange of publications with the rest of the world. 
In the first part of this report I present general features of the 
work of the Institution, together with brief summaries of the achieve- 
ments of the bureaus, the whole giving a composite picture of the 
Smithsonian Institution in the year 1948. For those interested in 
further details, fuller reports on each bureau are presented as ap- 
pendixes. These include the United States National Museum, the 
National Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the 
Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Inter- 
national Exchange Service, the National Zoological Park, the Astro- 
physical Observatory, the National Air Museum, and the Canal Zone 
Biological Area. Appendixes 11 and 12 consist of reports on the 
Smithsonian library and on the publications of the Institution. The 
report concludes with the financial statement of the executive commit- 
tee of the Board of Regents. 
As the Institution moves into its second century of operation, it is 
still handicapped by certain shortages in personnel and especially by 
lack of adequate buildings. An institution for the increase and dif- 
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