JOSEPH HENRY. 363 



and by the requirement that the fund should support a mu- 

 seum, a library, an art gallery, and courses of lectures. Not 

 one of these institutions, because of their purely local influence, 

 were, in his judgment, consistent with the purposes of the 

 founder, which were to u increase " and to " diffuse " knowl- 

 edge. By pursuing an unbending but judicious policy, some- 

 what aided by subsequent events, Henry succeeded in turning 

 most of the resources of the Institution upon the encourage- 

 ment of original research by prizes and subsidies, and the 

 publication of reports and treatises setting forth the progress 

 made in the different branches of knowledge. This result 

 was not attained without a long continued struggle against 

 narrow prejudice, selfish interests, and misguided schemes of 

 philanthropy, involving some sharp conflicts. As obstacles did 

 not turn the secretary from his course, neither did allurements 

 draw him away. He declined the professorship resigned by 

 Dr. Hare in 1847, which was tendered to him by the Trustees 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, although its income was 

 more than double his salary at the Smithsonian, and six years 

 later he refused his consent to a movement to make him presi- 

 dent of the college at Princeton. 



Under Prof. Henry's able management the Smithsonian 

 Institution quickly became a power for the advancement of 

 science. In his first report he announced the acceptance for 

 publication of the famous work of Squier and Davis on 

 Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. At the same 

 time he proposed " an extensive system of meteorological ob- 

 servations, particularly with reference to American storms," 

 for which Prof. Loomis had suggested that the telegraph, 

 then in its infancy, could render valuable service. This work 

 was undertaken in 1849 and steadily grew in importance and 

 value, so that in 1870 the Government was induced to establish 

 the Signal Office as a bureau of the War Department. 



American anthropology was a subject early taken up and 

 energetically promoted by the Institution. Special explora- 

 tions were conducted, a splendid collection of objects was 

 gathered, and numerous valuable publications in this field 

 were issued. Very early in his administration Prof. Henry 

 organized the Smithsonian system of exchanges by which the 

 scientific memoirs of societies or individuals in any part of the 

 United States are transmitted to foreign countries without ex- 



