REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1918. 9 



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 exhibit 

 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 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; (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 proposed, pending the gathering of art collections, which 

 would of necessity be slow, to provide for loan exhibitions by co- 

 operating 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." x The work was to go forward as the 

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

 Museum and the library was long ago assumed by Congress, the 

 Institution taking upon itself only so much of the necessary responsi- 

 bility for the administration of these and subsequent additions to its 

 activities as would weld them into a compact whole, which together 

 form a unique and notable agency for the increase and diffusion of 



1 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 collec- 

 tions 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 knowl- 

 edge, to the end that a copious storehouse of materials of science, literature, and art 

 may l>e 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. 



