4 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



trator, and with the National Museum almost as closely, though less ex- 

 clusively, since, though not its originator nor its sole director, his 

 was, as has been said, for a very long time the master mind in its 

 management. His relation to it was very similar to that held by Sir 

 Henry Cole to the great national establishment at South Kensington 

 in Enghind, so well described in the volumes entitled "Fifty Years of 

 Public Work," and recently published by his son, Mr. Alan Cole. 



With the death of Professor Baird the Museum must of necessity 

 enter upon a new period in its history, for his successors, be they never 

 so desirous of perpetuating his policy, can not apply to its management 

 the same kind of supervision, nor the result of such a life-time of ex- 

 perience and observation. 



Upon the firm foundation which he has laid they must build a super- 

 structure, harmonious in plan, but, it may be, different in proportions 

 and even in material. Their safest course must.be not to work as he 

 did, under circumstances different from those which are henceforth to 

 exist, but to try to work as he would have done in connection with 

 these changed circumstances. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM. 



The idea of a national museum in the city of Washington was first 

 suggested by the Hon. Joel Roberts Poinsett, of South Carolina, Sec- 

 retary of War under President Yan Buren, who in 1840.organized, for 

 the purpose of establishing such a museum, a society called "The Na- 

 tional Institution," afterwards " The National Institute," which was 

 exceedingly prosperous and active for four years. By this Society the 

 nucleus for a national museum was gathered in the Patent OfiQce building 

 in Washington, and public opinion was educated to consider the es- 

 tablishment of such an institution worthy of the attention of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States. In 1846, having failed in securing the 

 public recognition at which it aimed, and the Smithsonian Institution 

 being by its charter entitled to take possession of the extensive Gov- 

 ernment collections already assembled in its charge, the society became 

 torpid, and eventually, in 1861, passed out of existence. 



From 1844 to 1858, when the so-called "National Cabinet of Cariosi- 

 ties" passed into the charge of the Smithsonian Institution, the term 

 "National Museum" was in disuse. From that time onward, however, 

 it was used, unofficially, to designate the collections in the Smithson- 

 ian building. 



After the "-National Cabinet" was delivered to the Regents, ap'pro- 

 priations were made by Congres"? for its maintenance. During the 

 twenty-three years which followed, the collections were greatly increased 

 and were made the subjects of numerous important memoirs upon the 

 natural history and ethnology of America. The public halls, with their 

 arrangements for the exhibition of a j)ortion of the collections, also re- 

 ceived a due share of attention, and a certain amount of instruction and 



