52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
It contains 118 pages and 104 plates. The permanent accessions 
number 98 and the artists represented 228. 
MRS. HENDERSON’S OFFER 
_ Decided impetus has been given recently to the gallery’s building 
project by the very generous offer to Congress by Mrs. John B. 
Henderson of a valuable tract of land containing between 4 and 5 
acres, on Meridian Hill, facing Sixteenth Street, as a gallery build- 
ing site. 
ACTIVITIES OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF ARTS AND THE FEDERATION 
OF WOMEN’S CLUBS 
The American Federation of Arts and the Federation of Women’s 
Clubs continued their work on behalf of the gallery, furthering its 
interests with propaganda and lectures, with the use of lantern slides 
and photographic prints. 
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS HELD IN THE GALLERY 
Loan exhibition of early American portraits, miniatures, and 
silver.—The loan exhibition season was opened by a noteworthy 
display of early American art treasures comprising portrait paint- 
ings, miniatures, and silver, on view from December 5, 1925, to 
January 31, 1926. The exhibition, which was drawn from all avail- 
able sources, was conceived and assembled by the Washington loan 
exhibition committee, the members of which are as follows: 
Mrs. William C. Eustis, chairman. 
Mr. Frederick H. Brooke, vice chairman. 
Mrs. Porter R. Chandler, secretary. 
Mr. James Parmelee, treasurer. 
Mrs. William Penn Cresson. 
Mr. Frederic A. Delano. 
Mrs. Peter Goelet Gerry. 
Dr. William H. Holmes. 
Mrs. McCook Knox. 
Miss Leila Mechlin. 
Mr. C. Powell Minnigerode. 
Mr. Dunean Phillips. 
Mrs. Duncan Phillips. 
Mrs. Coreoran Thom. 
The very excellent illustrated catalogue of the exhibit was prepared 
by Miss Leila Mechlin and is introduced by a short historical sketch 
of the National Gallery. 
The portrait exhibit, representing nearly every portrait painter 
of distinction previous to the year 1840, was organized and assembled 
