8 3 6 



The Smithsonian Institution 



Jan. 26, Committee of the House called upon Secretary Henry and on other officers 

 of the Institution for a statement of their acts, investigated the claim of an em- 

 ployee for additional remuneration for services, etc. 



Feb. 6, Unanimous report of the Senate Judiciary Committee served to establish the 

 legality of the action of the Regents, and the policy of the Board has since 

 been continued without objection, in the same line as that which was originally 

 marked out by Henry when he accepted the secretaryship of the Institution 

 in 1846. 



Feb. 24, Board of Regents " resolved that all correspondence of the Institution shall be 

 conducted by the Secretary, and no assistant or employee shall write or receive 

 any official letter or communication pertaining to the affairs of the Institution, 

 except under the authority and by the direction of the Secretary, and all such 

 correspondence shall be duly registered and recorded." 



March 3, Numerous meetings of the House Committee were held, and finally two reports 

 were presented, with the testimony taken. 



March 3, Act passed by Congress allowing all copyright publications to be sent to the 

 Institution free of postage. 



March 3, Annual report for 1854 ordered by Congress, being the first to contain the lectures, 

 extracts from the correspondence, and miscellaneous papers in the form of a 

 General Appendix. 



1856 



March <?, Free transportation of freight granted to the Institution by the Mexican Gulf, Pa- 

 cific Mail, South American, and United States Mail Steamship Companies, and 

 by the Panama Railroad Company. 



September, Monument erected in Smithsonian Park to the memory of Andrew Jackson 

 Downing, architect and landscape gardener. 



1857 



March 3, Congress appropriated $2000 for the transfer of the collections of the Government 

 from the Patent Office to the Institution, and $15,000 for the construction of 

 cases. 



March 31, Personal effects of James Smithson removed from the Patent Office and de- 

 posited in the Regents' room at the Institution. 



May ig, 

 June 2, 

 Aug. S, 



1858 



Special committee of the Board of Regents made a report relative to Joseph 



Henry's connection with the invention of the electro-magnetic telegraph. 

 Congress appropriated $4000 for care of the Government collections, and $1000 



for transfer from the Patent Office. 

 Government collections were transferred from the United States Patent Office 



to the Institution. 

 Daily weather-map, from telegraphic reports received every morning at 10 



o'clock, exhibited in the Smithsonian building. 



1859 

 Jan. 25, Free transportation granted to the Institution by the North German Lloyd 



steamers. 

 Feb. 5, Congress amended copyright law, and on the recommendation of the Board of 



Regents repealed the requirement that copies of all copyrighted books, maps, 



charts, etc., be sent to the Institution. 



1860 



Feb. 23, Free transportation of freight gran ted by the Cunard Steamship Line to England. 

 Dec. 31, Magnetic observatory discontinued, and the instruments sent to Fort Taylor, 

 Key West, in care of the tidal station of the United States Coast Survey. 



1861 



June /j, Balloons sent up from the Smithsonian grounds by Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, to 



test practicability of their employment for military purposes. 

 Oct. 21, Free transportation of freight granted by the Hamburg-American Packet Company. 



