306 The Smithsonian Institution 



ciety," remarks Doctor Goode, "the nucleus for a National 

 Museum was gathered in the Patent Office building in Wash- 

 ington, and public opinion was educated to consider the es- 

 tablishment of such an institution worthy of the attention of 

 the government of the United States." 1 



The first collections of any magnitude which the National 

 Institute took under its care were those of the United 

 States Exploring Expedition which was sent out by the 

 Navy Department, under Lieutenant Wilkes, in 1838. Ear- 

 lier expeditions under the auspices of the government had 

 been organized, but they either made no collections or de- 

 posited such as they did make in private museums outside 

 of Washington. 



The first collections of the exploring expedition were re- 

 ceived in Philadelphia in 1840 and were temporarily stored 

 in a room belonging to the Philadelphia Museum. Poinsett 

 induced the Secretary of the Navy, James K. Paulding, 

 to forward these collections to Washington, and interested 

 himself to secure from Congress an appropriation of $5000 

 to defray the cost of their transportation and subsequent 

 arrangement. 



In April, 1841, the collections were deposited in a portion 

 of a room in the new Patent Office, designated for the 

 purpose by the Secretary of State. Doctor Henry King, a 

 geologist and mining expert and curator of the National 

 Institute, was in direct charge. The compensation of the 

 curator was paid from the appropriation of Congress already 

 referred to. 



With what rapidity collections accumulated under the 

 charge of the National Institute may be learned from the 



1 Report of the United States National to the Smithsonian Institution, by Doctor 

 Museum, 1893, page 3. For a full account Goode, the reader is directed to pages 38-48 

 of the National Institute and its relation of the present work. 



