FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS, 1875-1877. 733 



In the year 1846, on the organization of the Smithsonian Institution "for the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge among man," Congress, to the great relief of the 

 Patent Office and other public buildings, devolved upon the Regents of that Institution 

 the custody of "all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and all objects 

 of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens belonging or 

 hereafter to belong to the United States, which may be in the city of Washington." 



In accordance with the enactment the Institution has received and carefully pre- 

 served all the specimens which have been brought together from more than fifty 

 public exploring expeditions, and has added specimens collected by itself or obtained 

 from foreign museums by exchange, till its present edifice in the beginning of 1876 

 had become full to overflowing. 



By an act bearing date July 31, 1876, additional duties were laid upon the Smith- 

 sonian Institution as custodian, and $4,500 were appropriated "for repairing and 

 fitting up the so-called Armory building on the Mall, between Sixth and Seventh 

 streets, and to enable the Smithsonian Institution to store therein and to take care of 

 specimens of the extensive series of the ores of the precious metals, marbles, building 

 stones, coals, and numerous objects of natural history now on exhibition in Philadel- 

 phia, including other objects of practical and economical value presented by various 

 foreign governments to the National Museum." 



As a fruit of this act of the General Government, the Smithsonian Institution finds 

 itself the custodian of enormous collections that had been displayed at the Centen- 

 nial Exposition, and on closing of that exhibition had been presented to the United 

 States. These donations are made by individuals among our own citizens, by foreign 

 exhibitors, and by several of the States of the Union; and there is scarcely a power 

 in the civilized world in any region of the globe which has not taken part in the con- 

 tributions, and some of them with the largest generosity. Men of science most com- 

 petent to pass judgment pronounce them to be of immense value, and are of opinion 

 that, including the gift from States of the Union and the exhibits of the United 

 States, they could not have been brought together by purchase for less than a mil- 

 lion of dollars. 



That the magnitude and value of the donations from foreign governments may be 

 manifest, we annex to this memorial a list of the more important of them, as prepared 

 by Prof. S. F. Baird, who represented the Smithsonian Institution at Philadelphia. 



Their adequate exhibition requires an additional building which shall afford at 

 least four times the space furnished by the present edifice of the Institution. 



The Government of the United States is now in possession of the materials of a 

 museum exhibiting the natural products of our own country associated with those of 

 foreign nations which would rival in magnitude, value, and interest the most cele- 

 brated museums of the Old World. 



The immediate practical question is, Shall these precious materials be for the most 

 part packed away in boxes, liable to injury and decay, or shall they be exhibited? 



It was the act of Congress which ordered the acceptance in trust of these noble 

 gifts to the United States. The receiving of them implies that they will be taken 

 care of in a manner corresponding to the just expectations of those who gave them; 

 and one of the prevailing motives of the donors was that the productions of their 

 several lands might continue to be exhibited. The intrinsic value of the donations 

 is moreover enhanced by the circumstances under which they were made. They 

 came to us in the one hundredth year of our life as a nation, in token of the desire 

 of the governments of the world to manifest their interest in our destiny. This con- 

 sideration becomes the more pleasing when we bring to mind that these gifts have 

 been received, not exclusively from the great nations of Europe from which we are 

 sprung, or from the empire and republics on our own continent beyond the line, but 

 that they come to us from the oldest abode of civilization on the Nile, from the time- 

 honored empires and kingdoms of the remotest eastern Asia, and from the principal 



