REPORT 
OF THE 
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
CuHar.tes D. Watcotr 
FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1926 
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 
GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to submit herewith the customary 
annual report showing the activities and condition of the Smith- 
sonian Institution and the Government bureaus under its adminis- 
trative charge during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1926. The 
first 833 pages of the report contain an account of the affairs of the 
Institution, and in Appendixes 1 to 10 are given more detailed sum- 
maries of the operations of the United States National Museum, the 
National Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, the International Exchanges, the National 
Zoological Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, the United States 
Regional Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 
ture, the Smithsonian Library, and of the publications issued under 
the direction of the Institution. 
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
THE ESTABLISHMENT 
The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 
1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of 
England, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States 
of America, “ to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge among men.” In receiving the property and accepting 
the trust, Congress determined that the Federal Government was 
without authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore con- 
stituted an “establishment” whose statutory members are “the 
President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the 
executive departments.” 
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