7 8 CENTENNIAL .- EXHIBITION. 



Assignment of collections received. — While no special authority had been 

 given by Congress to receive these articles, it was not considered proper to 

 refuse them, and they were accordingly taken charge of by the several de- 

 partments of the Government to which they were most nearly related. An 

 exhibit of the iron, chain-cables, cordage, &c, of the naval department of 

 Russia was received by the representatives of the Navy Department. To 

 the Bureau of Education was delivered everything of an educational char- 

 acter. The Department of Agriculture received the articles belonging to 

 the vegetable kingdom, such as sections of wood, fibers, grains, seeds, &c, 

 while articles belonging to the mineral and animal kingdoms, and as 

 illustrative of the manners and customs of the people, were taken by the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and objects relating to the fisheries by the 

 United States Fish Commission. 



Accompanying communications from some of these departments give 

 in fuller detail the character of these donations. Suffice it to say, that so 

 far as the Bureau of Education, the Department of Agriculture, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and the Commission of Food-Fishes are concerned, 

 the collections promise to exceed in magnitude their own Centennial ex- 

 hibitions 



PROPOSED TRANSFER OF THIS COLLECTION TO WASHINGTON. 



General feeling on the subject. — The interest in the exhibition of the 

 Government very naturally suggested to many the importance of trans- 

 ferring it to Washington and maintaining it in its original form, and 

 numerous suggestions and earnest appeals to that effect have already 

 appeared in the public press. This feeling met with special expression 

 in a resolution of the National Academy of. Sciences, at its session in 

 Philadelphia in October ; and in compliance with its instructions, Pro- 

 fessor Henry, its president, transmitted to the President of the United 

 States the following communication : 



" Smithsonian Institution, 

 " Washington, D. C, November 13, 1878. 

 u To His Excellency the President of the United States ; 



" Sir : I have the honor to inform you that at a meeting of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, held in October last, the following preamble 

 and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 



'"Whereas the members of the National Academy of Sciences have 

 been greatly impressed by the extent, rarity, and richness of the truly 

 national collection contained in the Government building at the Centen- 

 nial Exhibition, and considering the great importance and lasting in- 

 terest with which the people of the United States must regard this col- 

 lection: Therefore, 



" l Resolved, That in the opinion of the Academy the Government col- 

 lections as a whole should be transferred to Washington, and there pre- 

 served in an appropriate building for perpetual exhibition. 



" 'Resolved, That the Academy entertains the hope that the President 



