1290 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 
. successive coatings; the productions of the present period are in every 
way inferior. 
The articles in this collection are not to be confounded with what of 
late years has been brought to America, and sold in quantities as 
works of Japanese art. 
In the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress Senator Voorhees 
submitted a report of the Committee on the Library recommending the 
purchase of the collection. The report, No. 196, contains a descriptive 
catalogue of 144 articles, and reference to it will afford a detailed 
description of these various specimens, their material, and what they 
signify in Japanese legend or history. 
Upon his return to the United States, General Capron generously 
placed these treasures in the Smithsonian Institution that the people 
visiting Washington might see and enjoy them. After his death (early 
in 1885) his widow, believing it to have been her husband’s wish that 
the collection should be kept together as a whole and ultimately become 
the property of the Government, signified her desire to leave it in the 
custody of the Smithsonian. When the National Museum was com- 
pleted the cases were removed thither, where the collection has con- 
tinued to the present time to be a conspicuous attraction. It interests 
not alone the art student and the designer, but all classes of visitors 
from every part of the country. 
This committee in the Forty-ninth and in the Fiftieth Congresses 
recommended its purchase, but no action was had upon the bills in the 
House. Professor Baird, writing January 14, 1887, to Mr. Singleton, 
then chairman of this committee, after speaking of the quality of the 
workmanship, etc., says: 
We should consider the acquisition of the collection of great importance, and its 
removal. from our cases would make a noticeable gap in the Japanese series. The 
price at which the collection is offered is a reasonable one; as the articles, if sold 
separately, would probably bring a considerably larger amount. (House Report No. 
4000, second session, Forty-ninth Congress. ) 
The price of $14,675 was fixed by impartial and trustworthy officials 
of the Government, four years ago, and accompanied by the statement 
that the collection ‘‘ is constantly increasing in value.” 
In view of these facts, and believing it to be an unusual opportunity, 
in the line of a wise and judicious expenditure for that great resort of 
our people, the National Museum, to acquire a collection of very great 
value, your committee report the bill back with the recommendation 
that it do pass. 
Committed to Committee of the Whole. ‘ 
June 14, 1890—Senate. 
Mr. Wiuram M. Evarts, from Committee on the Library, reported 
an amendment to be proposed to sundry civil bill for 1891 (H. 10884): 
‘For the purchase of the Capron collection, now on exhibition at the National 
Museum, of the estate of the late Horace Capron, the sum of $14,675. 
