2 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 



the collections then in existence, and provision was made for their 

 increase by the exchange of duplicate specimens, by donations, and 

 by other means. 



The maintenance of the Museum was long ago assumed by Con- 

 gress, the Institution taking upon itself only so much of the neces- 

 sary responsibility for the administration of this and subsequent 

 additions to its activities as would weld them into a compact whole, 

 which together form a unique agency for the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge, for the direction of research, for cooperation with 

 departments of the Government and with universities and scien- 

 tific societies in America, and likewise afford a definite correspond- 

 ent to all scientific institutions and men abroad who seek inter- 

 change of views with men of science in the United States. 



Since 1846 the only material changes in the scope of the Na- 

 tional Museum have been (1) the addition of a department of 

 American history, intended to illustrate by an appropriate assem- 

 blage of objects, the lives of distinguished personages, important 

 events, and the domestic life of the country from the colonial period 

 to the present time, and (2) provision in 1920 for the separate admin- 

 istration of the National Gallery of Art as a coordinate unit under 

 the Smithsonian Institution. From 1906 to 1920 the Gallery was 

 administered as the department of fine arts of the Museum. 



The development of the Museum has been greatest in those sub- 

 jects which the conditions of the past three-quarters of a century 

 have made most fruitful — the natural history, geology, ethnology, 

 and archeology of the United States — supplemented by many col- 

 lections from other countries. The opportunities for acquisition in 

 these directions have been mainly brought about through the activi- 

 ties of the scientific and economic surveys of the Government, many 

 of which are the direct outgrowths of earlier explorations, stimu- 

 lated or directed by the Smithsonian Institution. The Centennial 

 Exhibition of 1876 afforded the first great opportunity for estab- 

 lishing a department of the industrial arts, of which the fullest 

 advantage was taken. The historical and the aircraft series have 

 been greatly augmented since 1918 by large collections illustrative 

 of the World War. 



