THE SMITHSONIAN LIBRARY 

 BY CYRUS ABLER 



HE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION is a 



world institution ; its funds are held in trust 

 by the government of the United States for 

 the benefit of all men ; its influence, spread 

 as it is throughout the world, cannot be 

 readily seen, nor counted, nor measured. In spite of the 

 evidences of its work in the promotion of science, through 

 the publications, the Museum, the Bureau of Exchanges, the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, the Astrophysical Observatory, and 

 its other well-known agencies, no one acquainted with its in- 

 ner working can doubt that all of these put together represent 

 but a fractional part of its share in the intellectual activities 

 of the world. Of no department is this statement so true as 

 of the library. 



The idea of the formation of the library may be said to be 

 contemporaneous with the first announcement of the Smith- 

 son bequest, and to antedate the establishment of the Institu- 

 tion itself. In all the discussions in Congress relating to the 

 utilization of the bequest, the idea of a library played a promi- 

 nent part. In the Twenty-sixth Congress (i839-'4i) a bill 

 was introduced "to provide for the disposal and manage- 



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