12 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The editorial supervision of the volume was undertaken by the late 

 Dr. G. Brown Goode, and to his thorough acquaintance with the his- 

 tory of the Institution, and his skill and critical knowledge, the com- 

 prehensive plan of the work is entirely due. At the time of his death, 

 in September, 1896, the manuscript was sufficiently advanced to per- 

 mit of its completion on his general plan. 



The volume is royal octavo of 866 pages, with a preface by William 

 McKinley, President of the United States, ex-officio the head of the 

 establishment. It is illustrated by full-page portraits of James Smith- 

 son, the Chancellors, several of the Regents, the three Secretaries, and 

 of Assistant Secretary Goode, besides illustrations of the Smithsonian 

 building and of the infra-red spectrum investigations by the present 

 Secretary. The main divisions of the work are fifteen chapters, descrij)- 

 tive of the history of the Institution, and a like number of chapters 

 giving appreciations of its Avork in the several branches of knowledge, 

 mainly by persons not connected with the Institution, followed by an 

 appendix of 8 pages narrating the principal events in its history. 



Since it is impossible in a single volume to exhaust the subject, it 

 became necessary to mention but briefly many topics which it was 

 hoped might be elaborately treated. The book is printed from type in 

 an edition of 2,000, with 250 additional copies on handmade paper. It 

 is not classed in either of the regular series of Smithsonian publica- 

 tions, and will receive a special rather than a general distribution. 

 This course is found necessary by reason of the cost of the work. 



The Annual Be^Dort of the Museum for 1894, which includes several 

 special papers by Museum officers or collaborators, has been issued, 

 and the Museum has published a volume of Proceedings, and separate 

 papers of other volumes, besides two octavo and two quarto bulletins, 

 the contents of all of which are given elsewhere. 



The Bureau of Ethnology has x)ublished three reports, the fourteenth, 

 fifteenth, and sixteenth, bringing the work down to the close of the 

 fiscal year 1894-95. 



The Annual Eeport of the American Historical Association for 1895 

 has been published, and the report for 1896 has been sent to the printer. 

 These reports are transmitted by the secretary of the association to the 

 Secretary of the Institution, who submits the whole or portions of the 

 reports to Congress, in accordance with the act of incorporation of 

 the association. Prior to the report for 1894 the Institution had no 

 share in the distribution of these volumes, but, beginning with the 

 report for 1894, a limited number is available for purposes of exchange 

 by the Institution with historical and other learned societies of the 

 world. The reports contain papers relating to American history or 

 to the study of history in America. A most important contribution 

 in the report for 1895 is a bibliography of the historical societies of the 

 United States and British America, covering 561 printed pages, which 

 is a very useful reference work for writers and students of American 

 history. 



