REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. ake | 
public functionaries and of the public generally in furtherance of 
the above objects. 
“ Your committee are further of opinion that in the Museum, if 
the funds of the Institution permit, might judiciously be included 
various series of models illustrating the progress of some of the most 
useful inventions: such, for example, as the steam engine from its 
earliest and rudest form to its present most improved state; but this 
they propose only so far as it may not encroach on ground already 
covered by the numerous models in the Patent Office. 
“ 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 sessions of Congress as an exhibition room for the works 
of artists generally; and the extent and general usefulness of such 
an exhibition 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 
concentrate 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 
necessity be slow, 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 
