REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1907. 9 



"• Specimens of staple materials, of their gradual manufacture, and 

 of the finished products of manufactures and the arts may also, your 

 committee think, be usefully introduced. This would supply oppor- 

 tunity to examine samples of the best manufactured articles our 

 country affords, and to judge her gradual progress in arts and manu- 

 factures. * * * 



" The gallery of art, your committee think, should include both 

 paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and architectural 

 designs ; and it is desirable to have in connexion with it one or more 

 studios in which young artists might copy without interruption, being 

 admitted under such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your 

 committee also think that, as the collection of paintings and sculpture 

 will probably accumulate slowly, the room destined for a gallery of 

 art might properly and usefully meanwhile be occupied during the 

 se-sions of Congress as an exhibition room for the works of artists 

 generally: and the extent and general usefulness of such an exhibi- 

 tion might probably be increased if an arrangement could be effected 

 with the Academy of Design, the Arts-Union, the Artists* Fund 

 Society, and other associations of similar character, so as to concen- 

 trate at the metropolis for a certain portion of each winter the best 

 results of talent in the fine arts." 



The important points in this report are, (1) that it was the opinion 

 of the Regents that a museum was requisite under the law. Congress 

 having left no discretion in the matter: ('2) that ethnology and 

 anthropology, though not specially named, were yet as important 

 subjects as natural history: (3) that the history of the progress of 

 useful inventions and the collection of the raw materials and products 

 of the manufactures and arts should also be provided for; (4) for the 

 gallery of art the committee had models in existence, and they pro- 

 posed, pending the gathering of art collections, which would of neces- 

 sity be slow 7 , to provide for loan exhibitions by cooperating with art 

 academies and societies. 



In the resolutions which were adopted upon the presentation of 

 this report, a museum was mentioned as " one of the principal modes 

 of executing the act and trust.*'" The work was to go forward as 

 the funds permitted, and. as is well known, the maintenance of the 



a Resolved, That it is the intention of the act of Congress establishing the 

 Institution, and in accordance with the design of Mr. Smithson, as expressed in 

 his will, that one of the principal modes of executing the act and the trust is the 

 accumulation of collections of specimens and objects of natural history and of 

 elegant art, and the gradual formation of a library of valuable works pertaining 

 to all departments of human knowledge, to the end that a copious storehouse of 

 materials of science, literature, and art may be provided which shall excite and 

 diffuse the love of learning among men. and shall assist the original investiga- 

 tions and efforts of those who may devote themselves to the pursuit of any 

 branch of knowledge. 



