752 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



the mineral and animal kingdoms, and as illustrative of the manners 

 and customs of the people, were taken by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and objects relating to the fisheries by the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. 



Accompanying communications from some of these departments give 

 in fuller detail the character of these donations. Suffice it to say that 

 so far as the Bureau of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and the Commission of Food-Fishes are con- 

 cerned, the collections promise to exceed in magnitude their own Cen- 

 tennial exhibitions. 



PROPOSED TRANSFER OF THIS COLLECTION TO WASHINGTON. 



General feeling on the subject. The interest in the exhibition of the 

 Government very naturally suggested to many the importance of 

 transferring it to Washington and maintaining it in its original form, 

 and numerous suggestions and earnest appeals to that effect have 

 already appeared in the public press. This feeling met with special 

 expression in a resolution of the National Academy of Sciences at its 

 session in Philadelphia in October; and in compliance with its instruc- 

 tions, Professor Henry, its president, transmitted to the President of 

 the United States the following communication: 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 

 Washington, D. C., November 13, 1876. 

 To His Excellency the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



SIR: I have the honor to inform you that at a meeting of the National Academy of 

 Sciences held in October last the following preamble and resolutions were unani- 

 mously adopted: 



' ' Whereas the members of the National Academy of Sciences have been greatly 

 impressed by the extent, rarity, and richness of the truly national collection con- 

 tained in the Government building at the Centennial Exhibition, and considering 

 the great importance and lasting interest with which the people of the United States 

 must regard this collection: Therefore, 



" 'Resolved, That in the opinion of the Academy the Government collections as a 

 whole should be transferred to Washington, and there preserved in an appropriate 

 building for perpetual exhibition. 



"Resolved, That the Academy entertains the hope that the President of the United 

 States will favor the foregoing proposition; that he will delay the dispersion of the 

 exhibit from the several Executive Departments until Congress has assembled, and 

 that he will recommend to that body to provide for the transfer of the Government 

 collection to the city of Washington, and for its subsequent permanent support," 



In transmitting these resolutions to Your Excellency, I beg leave, in favor of the 

 proposition, to suggest, first, that the exhibit would form a fitting memorial of the 

 centennial condition of the country; second, that it would illustrate in a striking 

 manner the appliances used by the Government in carrying on its various and com- 

 plex operations; third, that it would be a repository in which the natural resources 

 of each State would be exhibited; fourth, that it would give information, in one 

 veiw of importance to the statesman, legislator, scientist, educator, and the capitalist 

 of our own and of foreign countries; fifth, it would be of interest to the intelligent 

 public at large, and would meet the approbation of all who regard the prosperity of 

 the country, and take pride in the condition of the national capital. 



