THE ESTABLISHMENT AND THE 

 BOARD OF REGENTS 



BY GEORGE BROWN GOODE 



iHE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION is a 



corporation or Establishment, created by the 

 act of Congress approved August 10, 1846, 

 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men." 



Its statutory members are the President of the United 

 States, the Vice- President of the United States, the Chief 

 Justice of the United States, 1 the Secretary of State, the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the 

 Attorney- General, the Postmaster- General, the Secretary of 

 the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. 



The duty of the Establishment is the "supervision of the 

 affairs of the Institution and the advice and instruction of the 

 Board of Regents." The Establishment has, from time to 



1 The original act of incorporation also Regent, in place of the Mayor of Washington, 



named as members of the Establishment the the latter office having ceased to exist. In 



Commissioner of the Patent Office of the 1874 the office of Governor of the District of 



United States and the Mayor of the city of Columbia was in turn abolished. In 1877 the 



Washington. This act was amended March Secretary of the Interior, and in 1894 the Sec- 



20, 187?, so as to substitute the Governor retary of Agriculture, were added as members 



of the District of Columbia as an ex officio of the Establishment. 



