THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



301 



and economical administration, and its superior reputation at 

 home and abroad. Henry's Programme of Organization, presented 

 to the Board of Regents December 8, 1847, is a model of skillful 

 analytical statement, proposing plans for the increase of knowl- 

 edge and its diffusion among men ; in it he laid down broad lines 

 of action and established the foundations on which the existing 

 edifice stands. Henry devoted the rest of his life, thirty-three 

 years, to the development of this programme, and the institution 

 owes to him an everlasting debt of gratitude for his enlightened, 

 pure, and able administration of the trust. 



After the plans of Mr. James Renwick, Jr., for a Norman 

 building, had been accepted, its erection in the Mall was con- 

 ducted slowly, being completed in 1855, at an expense of about 

 three hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. Meanwhile pru- 

 dent economy in expenditures enabled Henry to add one hundred 

 and fifty thousand dollars of accrued interest to the original fund. 

 A library was begun by ex- 

 change and purchase, and 

 materials for a museum col- 

 lected and housed. Besides 

 these interests, the institu- 

 tion adopted the plan of pro- 

 moting original research by 

 assisting men of science in 

 their labors ; at the same 

 time series of investigation 

 were instituted, explorations 

 conducted, and the results of 

 all these endeavors were pub- 

 lished and distributed to all 

 the learned societies and im- 

 portant libraries throughout 

 the world. 



Whenever a man was 

 found capable of adding to 

 the sum of human knowl- 

 edge, the institution assisted 

 him by supplying books not 

 otherwise attainable, instru- 

 ments of research, specimens of materials, and objects under in- 

 vestigation, and in some instances special grants of money were 

 made for personal expenses. The specimens in all branches of 

 natural history were not confined to the glass cases of the museum, 

 but freely loaned to men engaged in special lines of research ; and 

 if the specimens required were not on hand, the institution under- 

 took to obtain and to supply them, the only return asked for being 



S. P. LAKGLEY. 



