460 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



of the main building and a part of the lower story were burned. 

 The incipient art gallery, the chemical laboratory, and the lecture 

 room were all involved in the destruction. Happily the library 

 and the museum remained nearly intact. An opportunity thus 

 oifered itself to have some of the trusts imposed upon the fund 

 undertaken by other agencies. The library of Congress was rapidly 

 growing into a great national institution, so that there was no longer 

 any sound reason for collecting a separate Smithsonian library. 

 An act was therefore passed by Congress providing for the deposit of 

 the Smithsonian books in the library of Congress, so that all could 

 be consolidated together and the Institution at the same time be 

 relieved from their care. The necessity for reconstructing the art 

 gallery was obviated by the prospective establishment of the Cor- 

 coran Art Gallery in a neighboring part of the city. The erection 

 of Lincoln Hall and the establishment of courses of lectures, 

 sometimes of a high intellectual character, by the Young Men's 

 Christian Association, did away with the necessity of reconstructing 

 the lecture room. The principal immediate drawback was that the 

 building had to be reconstructed at the expense of the Smithsonian 

 fund, although Professor Henry was not entirely satisfied that so 

 large a building was necessary for the Institution. 



The only serious burden which remained upon the Institution 

 was the National Museum; but the expense of its support was now 

 undertaken by the Government, and it therefore ceased to be a 

 charge upon the Smithsonian fund except in this indirect way that 

 the building which housed it had been paid for out of that fund. 

 No advantage would therefore have been gained by removing the 

 museum unless the building was purchased by the Government. 

 The Secretary was therefore desirous of effecting such a sale, but 

 his views do not appear to have met with the entire concurrence of 

 the Board of Regents. The latter were not unnaturally averse to 

 seeing the Institution surrender its imposing habitation and the 

 associations which clustered around it. A very natural compromise 

 would have been for the Government to pay the Institution a suit- 

 able moderate rent for those portions of the building devoted to 

 the care of Government property, but it does not appear that this 

 measure was ever proposed. 



