REPORT ON THE PROGRESS AND CONDITION OF 



THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM FOR 



THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1918. 



By W. deC. Ravenel, 

 Administrative Assistant. 



INCEPTION AND HISTORY. 



The Congress of the United States in the act of August 10, 1846, 

 founding the Smithsonian Institution recognized that an opportunity 

 was afforded, in carrying out the large-minded design of Smithson, 

 to provide for the custody of the museum of the Nation. To this new 

 establishment was therefore intrusted the care of the national col- 

 lections, a course that time has fully justified. 



In the beginning the cost of maintaining the museum side of the 

 Institution's work was wholly paid from the Smithsonian income; 

 then for a time the Government bore a share, and during the past 40 

 years Congress has voted the entire funds for the expenses of the 

 Museum, thus furthering one of the primary means " for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men " without encroaching upon 

 the resources of the Institution. 



The museum idea was inherent in the establishment of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, which in its turn was based upon a 10 years' dis- 

 cussion in Congress and the advice of the most distinguished scientific 

 men, educators, and intellectual leaders of the Nation of 70 years 

 ago. It is interesting to note how broad and comprehensive were the 

 views which actuated our lawmakers in determining the scope of the 

 Museum, a fact especially remarkable when it is recalled that at that 

 date no museum of considerable size existed in the United States, 

 and the museums of England and of the Continent of Europe were 

 still to a large extent without a developed plan, although containing 

 many rich collections. 



The Congress which passed the act of foundation enumerated as 

 within the scope of the Museum " all objects of art and of foreign and 

 curious research and all objects of natural history, plants, and geo- 

 logical and mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States," 

 thus stamping the Museum at the very outset as one of the widest 



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