TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-1841. 219 



Article twentieth. The institution .hall have power to appoint curators and others 

 for the preservation and arrangement of the collections. 



[S. 259.] 

 A bill to invest the proceeds of the Smithsonian fund, and to establish the Smithsonian Institution. 



Be it enacted, etc., That the Smithsonian Institution shall consist of one superin- 

 tendent, with a compensation of dollars per annum, and not exceeding six 



professors, with compensation to each of dollars per annum, with such number 



of curators and assistants as may be found necessary: Provided, The number of, and 

 the compensation to, the curators and assistants shall be approved by the President of 

 the United States; all these officers to be elected by the board of management of the 

 National Institution for the Promotion of Science, established at Washington, and 

 according to the form and manner prescribed for the electing of officers of that insti- 

 tution; but the election of professors shall not be made until the buildings are pre- 

 pared for them to enter upon their duties. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the officers of the National Institution for 

 the Promotion of Science, together with the superintendent of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, shall constitute a board of management of the interest of the Smith- 

 sonian fund; and shall have power to plan and erect the necessary buildings, to lay 

 out the grounds, to preserve and repair the same, to procure the necessary books and 

 philosophical instruments, to arrange the collections, to prescribe the duties of the 

 professors and others belonging to the said Smithsonian Institution, and to establish 

 regulations for the preservation of the property, and for a proper exhibition of the 

 same: Provided, however, That no regulation shall exact a fee from any visitor: And 

 provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any member of 

 the National Institution for the Promotion of Science from being an officer of the 

 Smithsonian Institution. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said board of management shall have 

 power to appoint a treasurer and secretary, who shall be entitled to a compensation 



of dollars per annum, who shall give bond, in the penal sum of dollars, 



for the faithful performance of his duties, which duties shall be prescribed by said 

 board; but he shall render the accounts of his expenditures quarterly to the 

 accounting officers of the Treasury Department; and the said board shall report its 

 proceedings in detail annually to Congress, or oftener, if required. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all works of art, and all books relating 

 thereto, and all collections and curiosities belonging to the United States, in the pos- 

 session of any of the executive departments, and not necessarily connected with the 

 duties thereof, shall be transferred to said institution, to be there preserved and 

 arranged. 



SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the interest which has accrued on the Smith- 

 sonian fund be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, for the purpose of carrying 

 into effect the provisions of this act; and that the ground owned by the United 

 States, and designated in the plan of the city of Washington as the Mall, be, and 

 the same is hereby, appropriated for the buildings and use of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution and the National Institution; and the same shall be under the superintend- 

 ence of the board of management of the National Institution. 



CARE OF GOVERNMENT COLLECTIONS. 

 July 20, 1840. 



An act appropriating for the support of the Army for 1840. 



For the purpose of enabling the Secretaries of the War and Navy 

 Departments to place in a state of safe preservation the specimens of 



