222 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 
Long debates in Congress as to how it should be 
utilized! followed the reception of the fund. Propositions 
now seemingly grotesque, as well as others more rational, 
were offered in the shape of bills to establish the Institu- 
tion; long discussions followed, and it was not until 
August, 1846, that an act was passed in which the desired 
end was finally accomplished. In substance the act 
created a Board of Regents, serving gratuitously; part 
of them ex officio, part of them elected from among the 
members of the House of Representatives and Senate, 
and part private persons selected by Congress. A Secre- 
tary to the Board, to be elected by them, was to be 
executive officer in control of the work of the Institution 
and discharge the duties of Librarian and of Keeper of 
the Museum and with the consent of the Board employ 
assistants. Furthermore the act provides that “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 . . . in whosoever custody they 
may be”’ should be delivered to the Institution. A library 
was also provided for and the Regents were authorized to 
erect a suitable building for the purposes referred to in 
the act. 
It will be noted that the Institution therefore is a 
private trust, for which the United States Government 
is trustee; and which in its turn, having proved its etfi- 
ciency and probity, has been made trustee for the United 
States in charge of various scientific bureaus of the 
Government, such as the National Museum, the Astro- 
1See: The Smithsonian Institution, Documents relative to its 
origin and history, edited by William Jones Rhees, Washington, 
Government Printing Office, 1901, 2 Vols. 8°. 
