ee 
FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1251 
whether there be objection to the recommendation of an independency 
in the disbursement of the funds provided for its support as well as in 
its management. 
The first collection of scientific curiosities which appears to have 
been a special object of care on the part of Congress was that made by 
the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, provided for by the act of May 14, 
1836 (Stat., V, 29). This collection was first placed in the care of the 
National Institution for the Promotion of Science, and afterwards was 
transferred to the hall in the second story of the Patent Office. In 
1846, when the act for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution 
was passed, it was provided that, ‘‘as suitable arrangements could be 
made for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious 
research, and all objects of natural history, plants, geological and 
mineralogical specimens, belonging or hereafter to belong to the United 
States, which may be in thecity of Washington, in whosesoever custody 
the same may be, shall be delivered to such persons as may be author- 
ized by the Board of Regents to receive them, and shall be arranged 
in such order and so classed as best to facilitate the examination and 
study of them in the building so as aforesaid to be erected for the 
Institution.” Provision having been made in the act for a suitable 
building, etc., it was provided by Congress that the Smithsonian 
Institution might be constructed adjacent to the Patent Office build- 
ing, but the project was not accepted, and an independent building, 
where now located, was arranged, this being completed in the year 
1853. 
It is said that on Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of 
Patents were desirous of removing the collections of the Exploring 
Expedition and National Institution out of the Patent Office building, 
and requested the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to receive 
them. This appears to have been acceded to by the Regents on the 
condition imposed that the Secretary of the Interior should provide 
for the payment of the OES: of the keeping and care of the col- 
lections. 
An appropriation of $15,000 was made by Congress in the act of 
March 3, 1857, for_the construction of cases and of $2,000 for the 
removal of the articles. It was then held by the Attorney-General, 
in response to a request of the Secretary of the Interior for his opinion, 
that the provision in the eighth section of the act of the 4th of August, 
1854 (Stat., X, 572), placing the collections under the control of the 
Commissioner of Patents and authorizing the employment by him of 
keepers therefor, was designed to be temporary only, and that the act 
establishing the Smithsonian Institution, as well as that making the 
appropriation in 1857, were to be regarded as indicating the purpose 
of Congress respecting permanent provision for these collections. 
