THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL 



MUSEUM^ 



By Frederick William True 



^MONG the powers conferred on Congress by 

 the Constitution is authority "to promote the 

 progress of science and useful arts, by secur- 

 ing for Hmited times to authors and inventors 

 the exclusive right to their respective writings 

 and discoveries." " A result of this provision was the estab- 

 lishment of the Patent Office and the assembling in connec- 

 tion therewith of numerous models of inventions. 



A building for the Patent Office was erected in 1812, but 

 it was destroyed by fire in 1836, and with it the models and 

 records it contained. 



" In the Patent Office building, and with it destroyed," 

 writes Doctor Goode,^ "there was gathered a collection of 

 models which was sometimes by courtesy called the ' Ameri- 

 can Museum of Arts,' and which afforded a precedent for the 



1 Nothing could have been more desirable, 

 or in every way more fitting, than that this 

 chapter on the National Museum should have 

 been from the pen of the late Doctor Goode, 

 who alone possessed the ability to present 

 the subject adequately. I have quoted from 

 his printed papers as extensively as circum- 

 stances would permit, and the first part of 



the chapter is little more than a paraphrase 

 of portions of his writings. — F. W. T. 



2 Article i, section 8. 



3 Goode, G. Brown. " The Origin of the 

 National Scieniific and Educational Institu- 

 tions of the United States.'' "Annual Re- 

 port of the American Historical Association 

 for the year lS89,"page 7. 



303 



