REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 9 
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 product 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, aah to judge her gradual progress in arts and man- 
tifactures.))* ..* 
“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 the foregoing 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; (38) that the asta, of the progress of 
useful inventions and the collection of the raw materials and prod- 
ucts of the manufactures and arts should also be provided for; (4) 
for the gallery of art the committee had models in existence, and 
they proposed, 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 the 
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 
* 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 investigations and efforts of those who may devote themselves to the 
pursuit of any branch of knowledge. 
